


Just a Glimpse

by journaliry



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternative Timelines, Childhood Friends, Dirk Strider and Dave's Bro Aren't the Same Person, Love Confessions, M/M, Past Abuse, Romantic Friendship, no sburb session
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:08:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24503632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/journaliry/pseuds/journaliry
Summary: In the year 2200, John Egbert is sitting alone. He feels like he has next to nothing in his life other than his freelance work, that is until John hears about a new technological advancement that allows him to see into his alternative lives across different timelines. Right then, John jumps at the chance to see how different his life could be, only to find that all of his alternative lives have one terrifying thing in common... every single version of John is with his best friend, Dave Strider.
Relationships: John Egbert & Dave Strider, John Egbert & Dirk Strider, John Egbert/Dave Strider
Comments: 3
Kudos: 62





	Just a Glimpse

You’re alone and at home, just like every other night.

You’re sitting down on your couch, blankly taking in the silence in your one-bedroom apartment. Your hair is messed up and you’ve got a few coffee stains on your shirt. Your eyelids feel heavy and your backs killing you.

You’re exhausted from hunching over a desk for 16 hours while you were working on your freelance projects. Work is just about the only thing you do anymore. You don’t go out because none of your friends live nearby and you’ve always been too shy to talk to strangers when you go out shopping, which in all honesty you rarely ever do.

Instead of breaking out of your funk, you just lay down on your couch. You’re more than ready to just take a break from it all and numb your mind again. After all, there are a few videos you’ve been meaning to watch. You drag out your phone from your back pocket and use it as a remote. You’re holding your phone out towards your wall. Just from the gesture alone, your entire wall flashes black and then starts playing your backed-up playlist right on cue.

You blankly stare at the screen with dull eyes. You wait for an ad to finish playing out. You couldn't skip it if you wanted to.

You can feel a weight in your gut again, aching. The aching pain is asking your mind if it's all worth it... if someday living isn't just going to be a fucking misery you have to drudge through... maybe someday, you can live for something other than your work. You sigh and numb your mind again. Best to just forget the thought and watch the ad instead.

Just as soon as your playlist actually starts, your phone buzzes. You drag your eyes down to look at the screen. It’s your childhood best friend.

You think to yourself, _'yep, it’s that time of the day.'_

You pick it up on impulse, your face still remains unfeeling and indifferent just like your tone as you say, “hey, Dave.”

“Yo.” Dave doesn’t give you even a second before he jumps right into, “how’ve you been feeling?”

“Exhausted.” You lay yourself down on your couch as you speak, "I worked all day and I only got half of my work done for the week.”

“Dude. It’s Sunday.” Dave sounds completely indifferent, but you know him well enough to know that he seems nervous.

You almost let lose a sigh but catch yourself, “I’m just trying to knock it out now so I can move on to my other projects.”

Dave forces himself to sound completely casual as he says, “you’re going to work yourself to death, man.”

You don’t want him to worry over you, but if you tell him not to, he’s going to get even more stressed. You’re already prepared for what to say to ease his mind for tonight, Dave calls you this hour like clockwork, always bothering you with the same questions. You get it already! He's worried about you! It's thoughtful! Whatever!

“I’m just settling down for tonight, I’m trying to take it easy right now… but you know me.” You trail off, expecting Dave to finish the thought for you.

“Yeah…” Dave sounds quiet. He’s not saying anything at all on the other end.

You sit up on your couch and drag yourself up to the edge of your seat. You lower your brows as you ask, “you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.” Dave takes a brief, yet deep breath, “I just don’t like how you always just blow me off- you know what... never mind. Let's just talk about something else.”

You do your best not to groan, you know what he’s getting at. Dave wants you to stop working yourself so hard and not make your work your whole life, yadda yadda, you go through this conversation at least once a month. You’re not in the mood for that so you’re just going to steer it in the other direction. “Hey, Dave… how about sometime soon we meet up again?”

“You already know I’m down for that literally when-the fuck-ever you want.” Dave lets you know, “I can always put my shit on hold for you, man.”

You smile down at your phone, “I appreciate that.”

“You say the word and we can do whatever you want, man.” Dave sounds like he’s back to his laid-back self. You can relax. You lean back into your sofa instead of sitting on the edge of your seat like you were before.

You softly smile, “we should go to that hot dog place again.”

“Dude, they closed it a few months back. Remember?” Dave laughed as lightly as he possibly could. “When we found out you poured out the rest of your flurry on the spot and said a few words in memoriam.”

You instantly start laughing, that does sound like some stupid shit that you would do. “We’re going to have to make some plans soon to eat somewhere else, and I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t use the fresh air, or well, air that's as fresh as it _can_ be." 

Dave sounded like he was rolling his eyes. “We can talk about it tomorrow when you’re not so tired, bro." Sounds like he can tell just how fucking tired you feel.

“Thanks, Dave." You give your phone a weak smile. "I’m like ten minutes away from crashing.” 

Dave still has that tone in his voice as he says, “make sure you fall asleep in your bed this time.”

“I’m not at my desk.” You actually roll your eyes. "Don't worry."

“Your couch ain’t much better.” Dave’s nagging you again. “Your backs gonna get completely fucked up at this rate, John.”

“Oh my god, thank you so much for the advice.” You quickly mutter into your phone. “I have to go now, I can’t put off bingeing this show any longer! See you soon! Love you! Whatever! Bye!”

“uh- b-bye?” Dave muttered just as you hung up.

Ugh. He worries way too much. It makes you feel more stressed than anything else, still it’s nice to have someone looking out for you, you guess.

. . .

Not long after the call, you've already managed to skip through a few of your backed up queue.

You’re laying on your back and dizzily watching the screen when one video ends and another begins.

_'Fuck. It's an ad.'_

Ugh! You **just** put down your phone. You can’t be bothered to pick it up again to skip it. You choose to just suffer through the commercial, you’re not even going to listen to it anyway… Then, realize that the ad is just a part of one of the videos on your playlist. Must be something about this ad worth talking about.

On the screen, there's some doctor talking “-in recent years, we’ve made scientific breakthroughs with examining different timelines connected to our very own!"

You remember hearing about that five years back, some research lab found out they can connect a human brain to some machine and the brain's wavelength can synch up to it some...how...? You’re not sure how it works, but you do know that one of the scientists risked hooking up his mind to some tech hoping to see if the machine could glimpse into his own brain's subconscious. Turns out Dr. Zahhak ended up seeing into different part of his own life from a completely different timeline instead. At first, the researchers thought it really was just his subconscious, but they recorded all of their research and noticed that the doctor’s _thoughts_ lined up to perfectly with events that shortly after in the real world, things like predicting who was going to win football games when Zahhak had no interest in sports and his mind wouldn't dwell on it for even a fleeting moment. You recall it was something like Zahhak passed by a screen in a restaurant and saw the exact scores from a football game with the date and time appearing on screen as well. Later, the doctor managed to confirm it wasn’t his mind subsciously predicting future events because of a multitude of things just like that. He discovered that it was his own life in a different time with minor changes, the biggest one was how he wasn't a doctor but a weightlifter or something of that sort. Zahhak seemed so pleased with how his other life was that he became completely obsessed with perfecting the technology and he was devoted to racking up investors. Ugh. You hear that story from Dave’s twin bro whenever he gives you a courtesy call! Last time Dirk called he told you all about how that investment he made to the company was finally gearing up to pay off. You guess you get why now, at the time you thought those calls were weird cause Zahhak fried his brain about two-three years ago trying to view his life from a different universe all together.

 _'Damn it.'_ You zoned out again. Once you snapped back to reality you hear the woman on screen say, "-our team had a vision to hone this technology to broadcast -specifically- the most blissful, joyous memories from another time line directly into an individual's mind as if they were living those fond memories themselves!"

The next image you see is the host of the show you watch discuss the clip you just saw. The host is talking about the research team and how they just simplified the technology as much as they could and they are ready to offer its use to the public. What are they selling devices or- On screen, you see snapshots of the offices they keep their machines, guess that answers that question.

You think to yourself, _'Wow. Looks just like a dentist office.'_

You continue to watch the show when a list of cities flash on the screen. Apparently, as of right now they are opening up a few locations in a few select cities and are just starting to take in test clients.

Huh? Well. Look at that. One of them is where you live. 

The host of the show has been talking for a few good minutes now, but you can’t even focus on his words. You can't stop thinking about just how close one of the offices is to where you live. You let the thought slip out of your head and reset your mind with a sigh. What’s the point in seeing how you _could_ live when you’re so miserable right now? You start listing to the host talk again,

“Personally, I think that this is brilliant. Imagine just how many people out there are disillusioned with their life and feel like it will never get better. Say that person slips into that fuckin’ dentist chair, gets hooked up, sees how different things could be- this, right here, could be a big push for someone to get on the horse and take their life in a different direction! Let me know what you think in the co-”

You pause the video with your phone.

You scroll back through the video’s timeline.

You want to see the company's name again.

You dwell on it for a moment.

You’ve got plenty of cash saved up.

You’ve got nothing other than money to lose…

And maybe… you can give your old friend Dirk a little courtesy call of your own.

* * *

“We’re so happy to have you in today, Mr. Egbert!” A brunette woman walks up to you, she’s greeting you with a large smile and a clipboard. She’s probably pulling out the big guns because she knows how tight knit you are with Mr. Strider. You’re sure that she just gave you her name but it slipped right out of your mind as soon as she placed the clipboard in your hands. All you know is that she's from the original research team and she's the head of this test. 

You look down at the sheets as the doctor tells you, “I just need you to sign a few more consent forms before we go in! I’m sure you were already made aware that there isn’t any real significant danger with this procedure. The chances of anything going wrong is near zero percent, so only about a few of these sheets here are for any ‘health’ concerns.”

You felt the need to ask her why there were so many sheets you needed to sign if they weren't for health reasons, but your timid nature didn’t let you raise the question.

The woman standing in front of you started speaking again “I’m sure you’ve already looked into everything on your own time, but I’m supposed to debrief you on exactly how everything works.”

You give her the okay to go off by nodding.

She starts with letting you know the basics, “as I’m sure you’ve been made aware, we can only select moments of emotional hight from different timelines. Now. We have no way of knowing what those are in advance, but we can specifically dig up memories that we can tell -on our screens- had caused your brain to release a large amount of dopamine in the timeline we're focused on.” 

The doctor debriefing you is using several hand gestures as she talks, she takes a moment to brush her long black hair away from her lips painted maroon with makeup. Although she sounds so upbeat and nice, you still feel like a nervous wreck as she speaks with you. You have the same bitter feeling you get in your gut like you’re about to get your teeth drilled.

You zoned out as the doctor in front of you was talking, you jump back into listening to her, “we’re still somewhat limited here, you can only view memories from other versions of yourself that are from around the age you are now. However, there have been extremely rare cases where patients have been severally older or younger, but those are so few in number we usually rule 'em out entirely."

You nod again, you weren't aware of that. Then again, you didn't put in that much research... you kinda just made the call, put yourself on the waitlist and that was that. 

The doctor continues to speak with her hands as she tells you, “now, everyone in the room with you will not be able to see any of your memories at all. Only you can, and when you do, you’ll experience it first hand as if you were living them yourself. You can touch, smell, taste, hear, feel, absolutely everything!”

“I understand." You already knew that, but you guess she needs to make every bit clear, probably for legal reasons. 

“This is the part of our debriefing where I tell you why there are so many consent forms, and I’m sure you were wondering why.” She clasps her hands together and then points at you.

You let out a nervous laugh as you nod to let her know, “I was.”

She begins with, “we apologize in advance if any of the memories we randomly select causes you any discomfort... the memories we pick are the most pleasant to you in the moment that you experience them. With our past experiments this had led to some... 'unfavorable' experiences for some of our testers…”

The doctor's cheerful demeanor simmered down a bit, she seems a bit more mellow as she says, “I can’t tell you anything too specific, but I can say that some patients have had experiences they would have rather not sat through. These consent forms are just a precaution for that. -Okay! Now, I’ll be in the room, all you have to say is ‘change it’ and I, myself, will prep another experience for you.”

Even against your timid nature you felt like speaking up to ask, “wait- what kind of experiences did those people go through?”

The doctor seemed excited to tell you exactly what, like it was gossip to her, “experiences like sleeping with close friends or with a coworker, and later after our testers felt like it put a strain on their personal relationships."

You don’t feel too worried about that. You work from home so you’re sure you’ll be fine. Plus... if you do end up having some relationship with one of your friends... Ha. Like that's going to stress you out. All the girls you know live hundreds-of-miles away. Even if you did sleep with one of your friends in a different timeline, that might just be the push you need to start hanging out with them again. 

. . .

Your eyes are shut closed. You feel a few knots in your stomach wrestling the butterflies that are in there with them. You're tapping your fingers against the leather beneath your arms and your body. Just waiting for everything to finish getting set up. The anticipation is killing you. 

Right after the doctor finished up telling you about the procedure, you jumped right into signing the papers the doctors wrote out to cover their asses in case of a lawsuit. Seconds after you finished initialing each page you were taken into a room. From there you laid down in a chair that looks like it was taken straight from a dentist office, exactly like the image you saw on that webshow. You allowed the doctors to place a few different things onto your head. You were told to close your eyes until they gave you the okay to open them again. The machinery they strapped to your forehead doesn’t feel heavy at all, but it is tightly squeezing your head.

You wait till they give you the green-light to open your eyes, once they do... You found yourself in a garage.

You’re walking, but you’re not controlling your own legs or even where your eyes look.

You want to laugh at how bizarre the experience is, slipping into your own shoes and watching through your own eyes like it's a movie. Before you even have the chance to chuckle, you're distracted by the sound of the garage door click into place behind you. You guess in this timeline you own a home. _'Wow.'_

You must have just got out of your car.

Your eyes looked down of their own volition. Looks like you’re carrying a single wine bottle, wrapped up with a thin paper bag. You never drink wine, but your hand is wrapped around a bottle regardless. This life of yours is already so different, it’s hard to even believe that you’re the same person, still you know it's you, you always wear dress shoes when you go out and you never take off your dad’s old wrist watch.

You walk up to your house door and you place your free hand on the knob, looking down at your hand again you suddenly notice that you have a gold wedding band. You feel a wave of shock pulse through your soul and then a violent pulse of joy! You can’t believe that you’re married! You must have gone out to buy wine for your wife! God. You can’t wait to see who your wife is! You hope it's one of your friends, you really hope you know her. If it isn't, you pray that you'll say her name and get a good look at her. You might stop this whole timeline shit right then and there so you can jot down her name and look for her yourself.

Once you open the door, you smell something burning. Not like fire, more like something burnt? Burnt eggs? Burnt toast?

You mutter out loud to yourself, “am I having a stroke or… Honey!? Are you cooking something?” You snort. You're actually laughing about the whole thing, glad you have a sense of humor about it instead of sounding bitter. That must mean your marriage is a happy one. Now you really want to see your wife. 

You don’t see your wife anywhere. You walk in and survey the damage. Right away, your sides are splitting, you're laughing hard at the sight. The fan above the stove is spinning like crazy. Nothing is on fire but everything is a mess. Your wife managed to burn a pan full of bacon strips right down to a crisp. There’s a large bowl full of pancake batter with the majority of the batter being clumps of flour, you’re sure any pancakes made with it wouldn’t even be edible. A pair of toast just popped out of a toaster, you don’t even know how someone can mess up making toast so badly when the toasts have sensors?! Both slices are as black as coal.

Your eyes fall onto a long trail of burnt scrambled eggs on the floor, it's leading out of the kitchen and around the corner. 

“Sweetheart!?” You’re calling out as you laugh and snort. “Where are you?!”

You hold your sides, as well as the wine, as you follow the trail of blackened scrambled eggs over to another room.

You can hear someone scraping something out of a pan. 

“Cutie?” You laugh as you enter the room to see your wife. “What happened?”

You feel a shock surge through your heart, your mind, your very soul.

You weren’t talking to your **wife.**

“Shit.” Your childhood friend mumbles to himself. 

You were talking to your **husband.**

Dave is hunched over a window and desperately scraping burnt, smoking eggs into the grass outside. He isn't wearing his signature shades. His eyes are completely uncovered and he's looking at you with as much shock in his face as you, yourself, feel in your heart.

“What are you doing?” You chuckled sweetly as you asked Dave. You've never heard yourself sound so... so... gentle? That's how you sound. Kind and gentle. 

Even after hearing your tender tone, Dave shook his head in defeat. Like he's ashamed of himself. 

Dave looked like he was in pain as he explained, “I was trying to make you an omelette, but then I accidentally scrambled it and I was trying to fix it and I knocked the milk over so I jumped to clean it and knocked something else over then the omelet caught fire, so I slapped it with a towel and knocked more shit over-" Dave looks like he's getting ready to cry. "Then after that fuckin train wreck, I needed to toss this pile of burnt ass fucked up eggs -but it was smoking and I couldn’t put them down the drain cause the sink is full and I didn’t want to toss them in the trash cause it smells li-”

You put up both of your hands, one still holding onto the wine as you told Dave, “honey, hon-ha. Oh, sweetheart!” You chuckled and then gestured for Dave to “calm down.” 

“I just wanted to do something nice for you.” Dave held up the pan with one hand and ran his fingers through his snow white hair with the other. “When I woke up, I saw that you weren’t in. And- you know, since you always cook for me all the time I just thought I’d make breakfast for you today as part of my anniversary gift for tomorrow. I mean, you always make me a fuckin' amazing breakfast for our anniversary... so I thought I could make a _pre-anniversary_ breakfast, so it would be a total fucking surprise. I wanted to make you all your favorite shit and have a morning where I treated you right and... I completely fucked it up.” Dave sounded defeated. He hunched over like he just gave up, the pans still in his hand and still has burnt traces of eggs stuck to the inside.

You shake your head and lightly close your eyes, “God. Sweetie, I’m just impressed you’re even up at this hour… or that you even tried.” You blew a gust of air from your gut, “plus, I had a long morning. I’m just happy to see you.”

“Really, babe?” God, it’s so fucking weird hearing Dave call you babe. “A long morning? What happened?”

“Some genius decided we should get married on Valentine's Day and I had to fight some guy over a bottle of wine.” You held up the wine to show him the proof. 

Dave starts smiling, smiling like he’s impressed with you, “no way, baby... You didn’t.”

“I did.” You started chuckling, “you should have seen it I was all, -‘it’s my anniversary tomorrow, this is my husband’s favorite. Go somewhere else!’- and then I walked off!” You sound so proud of yourself. 

“Shit, John.” Dave grabbed you by the waist with his one free hand. He started shimmying closer to you. “You fought for my sake today?”

“Mhh hmmm.” You nodded your head and hummed. “I wanted to make sure that you had a nice glass for tonight when you go to bed at like 4 A.M.”

“Baby, you know me so well.” Dave started kissing your neck. You’ve never felt anything like this before. You still feel like you’re in a state of shock. You have no idea what to even think at the moment.

The version of you that Dave’s kissing doesn’t even miss a beat in the conversation. You just start scratching the top of Dave’s head as you say, “you were so good to try to make me breakfast, I’m sorry you got stressed, poor thing. I know how you get when I’m not around to calm you down.” You feel your face pull into a faux-frown. 

Dave chuckles against your skin, his breath is so hot... “dude, most of the time, I get stressed trying to fuckin’ keep up with you.” Dave keeps kissing your neck in between his words. “And. How good. You are to me.”

You hum at the feelings of his kisses. “Can you believe it’s been a year? It all went by so fast…”

Dave just keeps kissing your neck, out of nowhere he starts biting you. 

Suddenly your mind snaps back into place.

Why is this happening?! Why is your fucking best friend biting down on your neck and why is the other you just acting like it’s completely normal for your best friend to fucking bite down on your neck!?! And above all why are you two even married!?

You hear yourself chuckle, you feel the words escape your lips. You sound so confident as you say, “I know that once tomorrow comes, the two of us are going to be stuck on the phone for most of the day with Dirk. He's going to be congratulating us on staying together this long-" You joke with Dave, "woooow. A year? Who would have thought we would have lasted this long?"

You take the pan away from Dave's hand. It's hot to the touch.

Dave started laughing. Dave stops biting you just to say, “shocker."

"Right?" You snicker along with Dave. Then go right back to sounding confident. "-and then after all of that, we have those reservations... I bet we're going to get stuck in traffic too, and get home late and tired from the drive."

You step away from Dave and place the bottle you've been holding down onto a shelf against the wall. You walk away from Dave and towards a trash bin. You just toss the pan away in the bin, like it's a used tissue. 

You turn back to face your childhood friend. You feel your face pull into a grin as you ask, “why don’t we actually celebrate today, all day?”

“Shit.” Dave mutters to himself.

You, yourself, are taken by surprise as Dave suddenly decides to pick you up by your waist and you instantly jump up to wrap your legs around him, feels like you've performed the action of wrapping your legs around Dave so often you just do it in that timeline on impulse.

Dave looks down at you, his red eyes giving you a look you've never seen from him before. It just feels so... so fucking wrong. Dave sounds like he's just teasing you as he says, “you’re gonna fucking wear me out, babe."

“Not if you break me first.” You move forward and bite Dave’s bottom lip and pull it with your teeth.

Dave pulls away from your teeth's grasp. You feel the blood rush from your head down to your... _'Oh God.'_

Once you feel Dave smash his teeth against yours, you call for the doctors to "change it!"

Just as quickly as you said it, your mind went blank. So did your vision.

_'Holy shit.'_

You’re hoping this one is better. 

It takes the doctors a moment to change the scene. All you can see is black, so you close your real eyes.

Fuck. You’re supposed to see Dave again soon... How are you going to be able to face him after seeing that!! Shit. You should have heeded the warning that doctor gave you.

Suddenly. You feel someone's soft hands against your thighs. 

This has to be a girl under the sheets. No guys hands are this soft. 

You feel someone's mouth frantically wrap around your cock. She must have just slipped you out of her mouth for a brief moment. 

Fuck. You did think about using a dating app a while back. Maybe this is a version of you that actually made good use of that idea.

You wonder if you’re still a virgin after this. There's an actual girl under your sheets sucking you off. Ha! You can already feel how close you are, the feeling gets even more intense when you slip yourself fully into this girl's throat. The feeling is so blissful and so fucking strong, you don’t let yourself even think of anything other than cumming.

You finished right then and there. Gasping and moaning like an idiot while you came. But fuck. It feels so fucking good, you can't care if you're moaning in your real life or just in this timeline. Whoever is under the sheets has to be a sexbot, no way you could land anyone this fucking good at head. They instantly swallowed all of your load without any struggle. _'Yep. Sexbot.'_

Whoever it is -or whatever it is- they're starting to come up, taking their sweet time. Teasing your thighs and humming as they lift up their head from under the sheets. 

You see a flash of snow white hair. 'No. No. NONONO!'

Dave's throat sounds so sore and hoarse, “so this fuck buddy thing working out for you?” 

“Fuck.” You whimper, you're still panting. “I- Dave… How are you that good?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I practiced?" Dave started chuckling. He seems like he's really getting a kick out of making you cum so hard. He's tracing his fingers on your chest, just showing you how into your body he is. You came too hard to care, maybe too hard to even notice. You close your eyes, like you're ready to go to sleep. Dave slapped your chest. "Hey. You have to return the favor, man."

You take a deep breath and sigh, "Is a hand job okay?"

"If we're making out during." Dave shrugs.

"Deal!" You happily cheer through your frantic pants. "Come here!"

You don’t even want to hear the rest of this, you just call for them to “change it!”

Your eyes go back to the void. Then, all of a sudden, you're driving a car you've never been in before, saying to yourself, 

“My wife is going to be so pissed.”

You feel so blissful, you actually have a wife. You can breathe easy. 

You hear Dave's voice right next to you in the passenger seat, “you promised.”

“I know." You groan. "But do we have to do this today!?”

You turn your head to look at Dave, he's sitting right besides you looking fuckin' smug. "You saaaid." 

"But-" You sound like you're really trying to get out of this. "She's got a business trip coming up though!" 

"You can't put this off any longer." Dave points at you. 

"Ugh. I know." You groan and look at the road again.

You think to yourself. _'What?'_

You shake your head and tell Dave, "I'm sorry... I love you."

You mutter in your own head, _'fuck me with this-'_ You feel like screaming.

You muttered to yourself, "I'm just glad my dad didn't live to see this."

"Whoa. You don't think he'd approve of me?" Dave's just pretending to sound hurt, you know your dad would've. 

Ugh! Not like your dad's approval is even relevant to you and your timeline's version of Dave!

"Nooo." You narrow your eyes at Dave, "but he wouldn't have approved of me cheating on my wife."

"Hey, man. It's only been like two months." Dave tells you, "and if you put this off any longer she's just going to get even more and more pissed you kept this affair up that fuckin' long."

"Not looking forward to that." You hunch over, you already sound miserable.

"Hey, I'll be right there with you the whole time." Dave placed his hand on your thigh and pats it. "When she starts shouting, she'll be yelling at both of us."

"Thanks for having my back, man." You place your hand on Dave's and wrap it around his hand. 

"No prob, babe." Dave started resting his head on your shoulder. 

You rest your head on his, you press a few select buttons so that your car will self-drive. You never trust auto-pilot settings. You never use it. You guess it was the fact your dad never did either, and he always would bring up in casual conversations how people die in car related accidents more often than people get struck by lighting or something like that. You guess it made you a bit paranoid about it. Even now, you're keeping your eyes on the road, ready to jump into action if need-be... but for the most part you're just snuggling up next to Dave, rubbing your hands on top of his and breathing in his scent. 

You feel like getting up and out of the actual seat you're in.

This is all just too strange to you. Your mind's struggling to wrap around you ending up with Dave yet another time. Are all of your memories going to be like this!? God the thought of every single memory being you being held by Dave... it... you hate that it doesn't scare you.

You tell the doctors once again to, "change it."

For a moment, your eyes go black. Then you find yourself staring down at a wooden floor.

You're pacing back and forth, you can see you're wearing dress pants and formal black shoes.

You hear someone open a door so you turn around.

You look up and see Dave, he's dressed in a black suit and wearing a bow tie for some reason, "dude, you've still got more than a few hours. Why are you dressed?"

You respond with mocking him, "why are you dressed?" You sound like you're saying that as a joke, at least you think you are, for some reason Dave is wearing a suit too.

For some reason, you seem panicked. You know that you're timeline's Dave would be panicking in his head if he saw you bite your nails this aggressively. You're practically shaking. 

Dave shuts the door and starts walking towards you, "Dude. John, man... calm down."

Dave grabs your shoulders and tries to comfort you, "it's gonna be fine. She already decided she wants to marry you, you nailed the interview, you got the job."

"I know but-" You look away from him and then back up at Dave, what the fuck is wrong with you? You're straight up getting married and you seem like you're ready to piss yourself with fear. If it were you you, you'd be rushing over to the altar and standing there for hours till your bride walked down the aisle, you'd be so fucking stoked to have anyone like you enough to marry you. 

"I-" You tried to explain. "This all just doesn't feel right..."

Dave shook his head and sighed. "Listen, just because things don't feel perfect, doesn't mean that it's wrong."

"I don't need it to be perfect- I just..." You shake your head and sigh out the rest of your breath. You completely stop talking.

"Hey." Dave picked up the conversation for you. "I see the way this girl looks at you, she sees this guy who's as kind as he is funny. She laughs at basically all of your jokes."

You brush Dave off. "Stop." 

"She thinks you're smart, told me so herself, don't know where she got that idea." Dave joked.

"Uggggh!" You groan as you buckle your knees. 

"She's wild about you, John... and... I think she deserves you." Dave admits, "she's the kind of person I always saw you ending up with... so... it might not feel perfect now. But... trust me, it will."

You shake your head no.

"No?" Dave asks. "You don't think it will?"

"I... I've been going back and forth on this for like... months now." You confess. "I needed today to prove to me that this was... I needed it to feel... I just need it to..."

You close your eyes and softly mutter out the words, "I need it to not feel like a mistake." You sound completely defeated. You close your eyes and face the ground.

"A mistake...?" Dave grips tighter around your shoulders. 

You lift up your head and open your eyes. "I... I'm already over it."

"No, man." Dave gripped you a bit tighter. "If this feels like a mistake, then don't make it."

You half-heartedly try to shake yourself free from Dave's grasp, "I can't do that to Rox-"

Dave cuts you off, "no. Dude, you'd hurt her more if you married her and dragged her through a marriage you know is gonna fail."

You looked away from Dave and up at the ceiling like you were annoyed. "I don't know, Dave..." 

Dave looks you in the eye and asks you. "do you think this thing will stick?" 

You look away from him and take a deep breath through your nose, you huff it out. "...no."

"Then walk away." Dave releases you from his grip.

Something about the way he said that... he sounded... relieved. 

"I can't just send everyone home after they drove out here!"

Even though you just raised your voice... you sound relieved yourself...

"Okay, so..." Dave tells you, "everyone came out to bumfuck nowhere for your country bumpkin wedding in a barn. Trust me, everyone probably is ready to leave."

You laugh at that. "I don't like the venue either... but, you know." You tilt your head to the side. "It's what Roxanne wanted."

Dave shakes his head, like he doesn't understand you. Dave just changes the topic, "If you think this is a bad idea, you need to let everyone know before you sign those papers."

"That's in like..." You check your dad's vintage wrist watch, "two hours. Damn it. That's like a half-hour drive to the place with traffic too..."

"Then now is a great time to back out." Dave sounds like he's _itching_ for you to back out, almost like he's pumped for it. Dave clears his throat, he must have thought he sounded a bit too happy about you saying you wanted to officially be a runaway groom.

Dave tells you, "but... honestly... I think you should only do this if you're really sure. You need to do what you think is best for you..."

You nod your head like you're bowing it in shame. "I... I don't know... All I know is that you're right about everyone being itching to leave this stupid fucking place. This stupid country side shit is- ugh... and I was more than willing to spend money on- ugh." You completely stop talking. 

"Spend money on what?" Dave prodded you.

"Forget it." You blow off his question.

"No, man... tell me." Dave's bugging you like the two of you are still kids.

You instantly cave. "I wanted to blow money on a real wedding!"

"This _is_ a real wedding." Dave told you like it really was.

"You know what I mean!" You sound upset, but thrilled at the same time.

"No..." Dave chuckles, "I don't." 

You're ready to get everything off your chest. "I hated the idea of getting married in a fucking barn with sweet tea and fucking cupcakes- I wanted marble floors and, and- a wedding in a real building!" 

"Yeah?" Dave sounds like he wants you to go on. "What else?" Yep, you read him right. He loves this.

"I wanted something big and stupid and memorable, something showy! I wanted an orchestral band playing next to some huge ass white pillars. I wanted the lights to go completely black for our dance and then we surprised everyone when the ceiling lights up with golden Christmas lights we just stapled up there! I wanted to ban everyone from bringing their stupid cells and not offering up an open bar! The one thing she had to have was an open bar- I don't want anyone getting fucking wasted during our wedding. I hate the idea of people getting fucking wasted at _my_ wedding! I hate the barn. I hate our band! I hate the thought of the whole fucking thing!"

Dave's still smiling as he somberly tells you, "dude- if it's just that the wedding feels wrong, then maybe we should like... just postpone it then? If that's the problem... just talk about it with her." 

"Uh... maybe..." You shake your head. "Maybe..."

You sigh and confess to Dave, "You've been so cool these past few months, you're the perfect best man, it just feels like... whenever you leave the room I can't function right."

"You get by fine, John." Dave tells you.

"You don't know! You're not there when you're not there!" You tell him. "Ugh. Just- just tell everyone I got sick for now."

"No problem..." Dave nods. "Whatever you want. I'll be out there in a hot second telling everyone you just went full exorcist, shitting out of your mouth and spraying green shit everywhere, I got you, man."

"Ha..." You sigh out of your nose and then start up again, "but even then... Roxanne always goes along with every single thing I say, that's why I didn't mess with the venue in the first place! I wanted to see what she actually wanted and it's just... like... terrible shit! And like- all the movies we watch together are so boring and she laughs at every. single. thing. I say! I don't even know how she really feels about my jokes cause she just seems so... so...!"

"Fake?" Dave perfectly finishes your thought. 

"YES!" You clap your hands together and gesture with your hands as you say, "exactly!"

You groan and grab your head with both of your hands. You shake your head as you murmur, "too bad I didn't marry you, I know how showy you are, only thing you'd be up my ass about is having some fountain pouring out nacho cheese and playing some orchestral version of baby got back. Ha- and at least I know what's in your head... you always tell me everything you're thinking... I prefer it over the sounds of crickets."

You laugh to yourself and then look back up at Dave.

When your eyes fall on your face you can see just how shaken he is by what you just said to him. 

"What? What's that look for?" You tilt your head, you feel half of your lips pull into a smile.

Dave opens his mouth but no words come out his mouth.

"Dave?" You sound a bit more concerned. "Are you feeling alright? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Dave responds on the defensive.

"Nooo... say what's eating you. You just listened to me bitch." You shake your head and laugh out of frustration. "Come on, tell me. You looked like I just slapped you across the face!"

"You like... just totally... get me, man." Dave's rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. He looks like he's on the verge of having a meltdown. Dave tried to speak up again, "that... uh-" Dave fell silent. He cut himself off from talking, liike he was afraid of saying the wrong thing.

You wrap your palms around his arms, "are you feeling, okay?" You prodded him. 

"Ye-yeah." Dave doesn't sound all too confident with his answer.

You don't buy it, "Dave- come on. Don't lie, I can tell I just offended you." You slap the side of his arm and ask him, "tell me what I said wrong."

Dave shakes his head. "You didn't say anything wrong."

"Did I insult your taste or something?" You joke. "Cause that nacho cheese fountain idea actually sounds like shit you'd ask for."

Dave doesn't look at you. He turns his head away.

"Dave?" You prod him further. "Come on, don't stay silent on me. I hate when you do this."

You leaned towards where Dave was staring, you wanted him to look at you.

"John..." Dave lightly breathed out your name.

You tilted your head, like you were waiting on him to speak up.

"Just... let's drop it." Dave pulled himself out of your grasp, stepping back and away from you.

"Noooo.... Come on." You didn't let him get away, you grabbed his arm again.

"John. Let's lets not do this." Dave was completely facing away from you now, trying to walk away.

"What is it?" You walk in front of Dave. "What's wrong? Don't make me worry about you, I'm sick right now, remember?"

Dave looks down at you. He looks like he wants nothing more than to just run away.

You feel your brows rising. You part open your lips like you want to say something. Nothing comes out. You just keep looking at Dave. 

Dave's wearing his shades but you can tell by his lip quivering and his face flushing that somethings up. Dave flinches a few times, moving his head like he's ready to run for the door right in arm's reach.

"Dave?" You grab his attention again.

Dave isn't even looking at you as he asks, "marrying a girl like _her_ feels wrong to you?" 

"Uh... yeah?" You nod. "I just... I don't know... I still think she's nice and I liked her for that... but she seems a bit too much like a... pushover?" You say it like you're asking Dave for confirmation. 

Instead of confirming your feelings, Dave just says, "she's like... honestly... a fucking 10, John."

"Little in the middle but she got much back?" You tilt your head as you look at Dave, trying to make him laugh with your vintage reference. You feel your face pull into a devilish smile.

Dave shakes his head, he's looking up at the ceiling. "You don't even want to try to make it work... and she's like the perfect woman."

"Hey." You grab Dave's attention, "there's no such thing as a perfect anything. Only the right kinda thing."

Instantly, Dave forces his lips against yours. He holds your head with both of his hands and sighs out of his nose, you can just feel that his heart is screaming from how desperately he's clinging onto you.

Dave pulls away, he looks so devastated with himself, like he just plunged a knife into your chest. 

You don't know what your expression is. But... Dave seems confused by it.

Suddenly, you grab Dave by the waist and pull him into a kiss. Dave kisses you back, you part open his mouth with yours and hum against his tongue. You pull his hair and drag him over to your hotel bed. You lay down on the sheets and try to force Dave down with you. He doesn't budge, he's just hovering over you. Mindlessly looking down at you and poking your crotch with... _'good lord, he's huge.'_

"Fuck. Dave." You pant on to his lips. You grab the back of his head and force his mouth around yours. You're still trying to drag him down to the bed. Dave's backing away from you.

Dave breaks free from your kiss. Before he has the chance to talk you tell him, "this is the most alive I've felt in years."

Dave seems skittish about the whole thing, "we-" Dave looks over at the door, "we shouldn't."

"It's-" -you pant- "it's too late for that? Don't you think?" You look down at his erection rubbing up against yours. Dave's eyes follow and you take the initiative to start grinding yours against his cock. You start laughing through your pants. You seem fucking thrilled. 

Dave looks down at you, he's smiling. He fucking wants you, you know it.

Even so, he asks, "what if we get caught?"

You chuckle at the thought. "God! I hope so!"

Dave breaks free of your grasp completely. He frantically unbuckles his belt and tries to strip himself of his pants. You cheer, like you're excited for a fucking show. You watch him strip himself of his pants as you take off your shoes. You get up, looks like you want to take off your own pants, Dave's already got nearly everything off but his button up and those shades of his. You push him down to the bed, seems like you want him to stay down. 

You strip off your belt and then sit down on Dave's lap. You shake your head and lock eyes with Dave's shades.

You grind your ass against Dave's cock as you mutter, "this is _so-hoho-_ wrong."

"Yeah..." Dave pants out a moan. He looks like he seems a bit stunned by those words.

You feel your lids pull into a glare. You stare down Dave and say,

_"Make it feel right."_

You don't want to sit through this any more. You ask the doctor to, "change it. Please."

You're walking besides Dave in a park. Both of your hands are in your pockets. You're fumbling around with your house key and something that feels velvety. Probably because it's freezing out, you can't drag your hands out of your pockets even if you want to.

The night air is so chilly. It feels like it's winter and the lights all around just scream Christmas. Dave stops out of nowhere to tie his shoe. You instantly stop walking and turn around to face him. 

You noticed that Dave for some reason removed his shades.

You can actually see his eyes. 

Dave slowly lifts up a black box from his jacket pocket as he says your name, "John Egbert."

You gasp and cover your mouth. 

Before Dave can even pop the question, you yell at him, "you asshole!"

Dave laughs as he asks, "babe, what?"

You get down on one knee, matching his gesture. You drag out the velvety box you were fiddling with earlier, "Dave Strider."

"Really!? Holy..." Dave started laughing. He sounds unsure as he asks, "okay, so... on three?"

Dave asked you if you wanted a countdown, instead of agree you just yell, "You already know what the answer is, you big dork!" You laughed as you yelled at him. You gave Dave the box in your hands and then wrapped your arms around his neck. "Of course!"

Dave held onto both of the rings as he wrapped his hands around you and rocked you back and forth.

You pulled away from Dave and pushed his shoulder back, "I was going to ask you when we got on top of this Ferris wheel they set up for a fair a few blocks down!" You keep laughing, "I guess now we don't have to walk all that way!" 

Dave confesses to you, "I was going to ask you in the morning at breakfast, but it just felt wrong. Then you said you wanted to go to the park tonight and I thought, yeah. I'll just trick you into stopping wherever feels right."

Looking around at the scenery, all of the trees look black in the darkness of the night. There are golden lights flickering in their leaves. Just like stars.

You feel your face try not to pull into a grin, but you can't stop yourself from smiling. "I'm glad you waited. This is even more romantic than I thought it would be -even though I'm freezing my ass off." You stopped to correct yourself realizing that you might have just insulted Dave's original proposal idea, "it still was a great breakfast though! I loved it!"

"Yeah, well." Dave laughed, "maybe cause Jade made it."

"Oh my god!" You pushed Dave. Dave manages to balance himself from falling over. 

You continue, "I knew that you had help! You've _never_ cooked for me before, and I heard someone come in at like 5 but I just thought it was you taking out the recycling or something! No, yeah. This is much better." You nod. 

Dave looks a bit nervous as he talks, he darts his eyes away from you. "I mean... It doesn't really matter to me where it is, but I didn't want to start our marriage on like... you know."

"A lie!?" You finish the thought and start laughing. "Oh, baby! I don't care what you do or how you do it, so long as it's for me."

"Wow. Selfish?" Dave joked as he took your hand. 

"You know what I mean!" You happily laugh and Dave tries to slip on your engagement ring, you're giggling and bouncing too much, he can't get a good grip on your finger. You try to simmer down but you're still shaking as you try to keep in your laughter. 

You, your trueself, somberly tell the doctors to "change it."

You're sitting down on your couch in your apartment again. 

The screen isn't on and you're sitting at the edge of your seat.

You seem impatient, like you're waiting for someone to come over or something. 

You hear Dave call to you from your bedroom, "okay! I'm ready!"

"Should I come to you?!" You call back.

'God. This is another sex thing isn't it?'

"No! I'll bring it!" Dave makes a huff like he just lifted up something heavy.

 _'Maybe it's a gift?'_ You think to yourself.

When Dave enters the living room you can see that it is!

It's a huge white box with a large red bow on top. It's the most stereotypical gift box you've ever seen in person... or well... semi-in person.

"Oh my god!" You joke. "It's a box!"

"I know, man. I went all out." Dave nods. "But it's what's inside the box that's the real fucking deal."

"Oh. Shouldn't you sing happy birthday now since I don't have a cake?" You ask him.

_'Ah. So this is just a best friend thing? Thank God for that.'_

"We can do that later when the pizza gets here." Dave seems like he wants you to take the box from him, maybe it's heavy?

"Oh!" You nod. "Good thinking! You're so smart, Dave."

Well damn. You _must_ be dating, you'd never say Dave's smart unless you had to. 

You lift up your hands, outreaching them to take the box and set it down on your lap.

"Hold on." Dave gets out his phone. "I've got to take a video of this."

You roll your eyes. "Just don't send it to anyone, okay? I don't need the girls flooding my phone with messages about 'ohhh, when are you two getting hitched?' again." Yep. You're both dating. 

"Hey, man. I'll tell them to not spam us with stupid questions as a birthday gift to you." Dave fumbles with his screen.

"What about Dirk?" You ask _your boyfriend_. "He already got me those tickets so that shits not gonna fly."

"I'll deal with him." Dave encourages you to open the box, "just open the gift."

You take the lid off of the box. You look down and see two tiny black eyes looking up at you and a happy wagging tail. You instantly whine out a scream. "AWWW!" You pick up the golden retriever puppy and hold them close to your heart. "Oh my god!" You look down at the dog's fluffy belly and then back up at Dave. "What's her name!?"

"Well, I named her myself." Dave proudly says.

You don't hide your disappointment. "So it's something stupid like 'weed eater' isn't it?"

"I named her buster." Dave tells you, "and before you even ask, yes her full name is Ghost Buster."

You let out a shrill whine. "Oh my goooood! I love it. I love her! I love you!"

The golden puppy in your arms starts licking your face. Seems like she's excited that you're excited. 

Even you, yourself, have to admit that Dave did right. You absolutely love dogs, you always wanted to get one but you're too lazy to go out on walks and your sleep schedule is so fucked as it is. You never go anywhere so your dog would just be cooped up in the house... but Dave loves just chilling out and visiting restaurants or music shops. Dave's a big fucking window shopper, he lives to scope out shops. You bet if you lived with him -like as even a roommate- that he'd encourage you to have a better lifestyle. Of course... he never wanted to. Whenever you'd suggest it would be a good idea, he'd blow it off... You guess you can figure out why... it would have been hard on him. 

You look down at the puppy in your hands. You kiss her cheek.

You always knew that Dave gets stressed over you because he cares about you... but that's not the whole story. 

You look up at Dave again, you're wiping a tear from your eye. 

_It must have been hard on him. Being in love with someone that he thought could never love him back..._

Dave walks up to you and kisses your cheek.

_Dave's heart must get crushed every time he sees you. You have a heart that he thinks he can never hold... no matter how desperately he wants to._

Buster pushes up against your chest so she can kiss Dave's cheek too. Dave starts spitting, grossed out with the fact a dog's tongue grazed over his face.

You start laughing. You actually feel like chuckling...

You tell the doctors in the office peacefully, "change it." 

There's nothing but black, until suddenly there isn't.

You're standing in some hotel room and straightening up your suit as you look into a mirror. You look-

"You look worried," you hear your best friend's voice coming from behind you, judging by the look on your face you didn't know he was there.

"Oh, Dave." You held onto your chest, "you scared me."

"Dude, our weddings in three days." Dave walked up behind you and straightened up your suit for you.

"I know, but I thought I might need to make some more adjustments to my suit." You lift up your arm and look at the sleeve, measuring it's length with your eyes.

"I told you it was perfect the last time you had it tailored, It looked perfect the first time and it'll look perfect the next time too, babe." Dave makes you put your arm down. 

You roll your eyes as Dave talks.

"There's no way that you're gonna botch this." Dave kisses the side of your cheek as he leans over. Instantly, you start grinning and quietly laugh. You turn your head to kiss Dave's cheek. You turn back to the mirror and quietly say, "look at the two of us together..."

Dave doesn't respond, he just softly looks at his own reflection wearing his usual black shades.

You pat his cheek. Dave responds to that by taking off his shades.

He looks into the mirror, he's staring right into your eyes.

You give him a somber smile, "you're right... I just want this to be perfect for you."

"It will be." Dave kisses you again, "it already is."

"I wish my dad could see this." You let out a small sigh.

"I'm sure he's with us in spirit." Dave nods, "I keep getting this feeling like someone's gonna come out of nowhere and give me a speech about how being a good husband means being a good provider and protector... and-" Dave kisses you again, "I'm sure he'd be down my throat with how I outta treat you right."

"Dave." You tell him, "you're the only thing that keeps me from getting into my own head."

"Yep." Dave agrees. He sounds so monotone when he says, "I'm the best." 

_'What a self-righteous dick.'_ You, yourself, feel like smiling.

You look into your own eyes... now that Dave is besides you, you look like you're at peace.

You hear yourself say, "and you always are ready to help me, in whatever way I ask."

"Yep." Dave nods along with those words.

"Even though I'm difficult."

"Eh-" Dave seems on the fence about that. "You're just hard on yourself, babe."

You instantly kiss Dave's lips for that and then look back at the mirror. 

You shake your head, "Dave and John Egbert... can you believe it?"

"And it's the dawn of the final day." Dave jokes. You laugh. 

You tell him, "tomorrow, it will have been worth all the stress, huh?" 

Dave shakes his head, "so long as you're happy, I'm happy."

You kiss him again and then start walking backwards, towards the bed. 

You grab Dave's arms and force him down onto the bed on top of you, "let's get some practice in for tomorrow!"

Dave sits up and starts pulling off his own clothes, "you don't have to ask me twice."

You ask the doctor's to "change it" over the sounds of your own squeals and giggles. 

You see nothing. Just another void of black. 

Until you start hearing clinking dishes and breath in the scent of fries. 

You are sitting down in a booth at a restaurant. Seems like just the run of the mill average place. It's no place for a date, still you find yourself looking up at Dave and waiting for him to take a seat. He's probably your boyfriend.

Dave looks a bit nervous as he takes his seat in front of you and a few empty plates. “So, uh… Where’s your uh- girlfriend?” 

“She left.” You sound pissed.

"Oh... Did she need a ride or...?"

“Just- ugh… Dave. What the fuck was all of that?”

“What?” Dave shrugs.

You answer him with a large hand gesture, “all of those jokes? The constant awkward laughing- from both of us by the way!”

“I was just trying to get to know her, bro.” Dave shrugs again. He awkwardly starts looking down and away from you, not like you can see his eyes through his shades.

“Well too late!" You tell him. "She broke up with me!”

“What? Weren’t the two of you like dating online for like... months? She just broke it off with you cause your best bro is fucking weird? The fuck kind of person does that?”

“She broke it off with me because in her opinion, I talked more with you than her.” You sound like you’re blaming yourself, which is fair... you would.

“She just broke up with you over that?” Dave asks, “that’s fuckin’-”

You cut Dave off. “She also said she caught you checking out my ass.”

You tell Dave, sounding annoyed. “She asked if you were gay, I said yes and right there she told me she was gone.”

Dave scoffs, “so she’s-” 

You lift up your hand to cut Dave off. “She told me that she saw how into me you were and that she didn’t want to play second banana to you anymore.”

“Anymore?" Dave's tapping his foot under the table, he seems stressed. "What? Did you only ever talk to her about me?” 

“Dave, you’re like the only person I even hang out with.” You lift up your hand and gesture towards him.

“So- Same goes for me.” Dave's crossing his arms now.

You laugh. You sound amazed and you feel your eyes open wide, “are you just ignoring the fact you checked out my ass?”

“You got up to help that waitress out!" Dave argues, "I was checking out the scene.”

“Dave. She said you tilted your head and nodded like you were fucking pleased with what you were seeing.” You mimicked the gesture to illustrate your point. 

Dave starts scratching the back of his hand. “She could have been exaggerating.”

“Exaggerating? Really? After you made a joke about my ass being fat for no reason today at the table?”

“Okay. So maybe I looked! But there’s nothing wrong with just peaking.” Dave defended himself. 

“So you did look!” You sound amused with that.

Dave conceded that he lost that argument when he let out a small mutter under his breath, "damn it."

“HA! Oh my god!? Are you into me!?” You're getting a kick out of Dave's pain right now.

“John, listen. Your ass is just **that** fat. It doesn’t mean anything other than you have that kind of ass that guys just stare at. Not just me, you’d make straight dude’s turn their heads. Fuck, you’d make straight dudes turn in general.”

“Oh. My. God. You _ **are**_ into me!” You sound like you just made a major break through, which in all honesty, you did. 

“Dude, that is so not my point.” Dave starts laughing but only because you’re losing your mind. 

“So was it worth it, huh?” You glare at Dave as you try your hardest not to laugh. You must want to come off as angry. “Is staring at my ass worth making me single?” You sat a bit up in your chair, you stuck your ass out and started shaking it back and forth. “Huuh?! Is it worth it?!” 

Dave started cracking up. “John- I-”

You keep shaking your butt. "Is staring at your best friend's ass worth making him lose the only girlfriend he ever had? Huh?" You can't stop yourself from laughing. 

Dave is crying he's laughing so hard.

You try to yell at him over your laughs, “Stop Laughing, I’m serious!”

Dave says through his tears, "I can't help it! You're shaking your ass and putting on a little show for me-"

"Well, you like what you see!?" You ask him. "You better! Checking out my ass is the reason **you're** gonna pay for dinner, bitch!"

"Ha! Fucking worth it." Dave's already digging out his wallet. 

You want to tell them to change it but… It’s pointless.

You just let the scene play out. Where you lose your mind, laughing with Dave.

You seem excited at all of Dave's comments about how you're so hot any guy would want to rail into you. 

You live through laughing at just about everything your best friend says.

You just kept crying and laughing about how Dave always wanted to just walk up to you and smack your ass since you were teens. "You'd just bend over while you were cooking and I just wanted to- Mhhh!" Dave jokes.

You keep cracking up at his confession. You enjoyed it so much that you offered Dave a taste of your body and let him feel up your ass if he takes you out to dinner all week. "Actually, take me to a show too, and I need someone to help me pick out some new shoes. You wanna get paid? You gotta do the work."

The scene fades naturally into the next... A brief moment passes after all the laughter and jokes, where there's nothing but void. You can feel how tight your lids are. Then, suddenly you're sitting down on your sofa. You breathe a sigh of relief. You're just at home. Your regular old apartment. No one else around, nothing is here to make you question... everything about your life. Then you notice that you're talking to Dave over the phone...

Slowly you start to feel a bit of shame come over you. Your usual life just seems so miserable and you're best friend is in love with you... trying to comfort you over the phone with his usual, "you're the coolest guy I know, and yes cooler than my billionaire twin, he used to steal my lunchables." 

This is just like your plain, boring life. You're just laying down on your couch and blankly listening to Dave talk to you while you. For some reason you seen even more upset than usual. You feel tears start to form in your throat as you speak. "I don't know Dave... I just... okay, I haven't been feeling to hot... I just don't like burdening you with-"

"You are never a burden on me. Don't even think that." Dave sounds offended you even suggested that you were.

"Okay- alright... just..." You stop talking. You can't find the words.

"John. I don't want to yell at you, man. But I fucking will if you fucking think of yourself as a burden. You're my best friend. I'm always looking out for you."

"Right. And... I guess I never tell you how..." You start openly sobbing, choking on your words as you speak. "how much that... that really has been helping me... how much that means to me... fucking... god damn it." You feel your hand turn into a fist.

You choke back a sob as you say, "I just... I don't know how to fucking do anything."

Dave's trying so hard to cheer you up, "Dude, you fucking kill it at your work. You're the best coder I know next to my bro and remember when we used to play games together? You always won." 

"Not what I meant." You try to keep yourself from crying. "I meant like something actually useful. I'm no good at talking to people or making friends or keeping them or. Fucking. Anything."

"Not fucking true. You've got me. You've got Rose-"

"Dave. None of our friends, other than you, even talk to me anymore. Even when I message them. I'm just such a fucking bummer to talk to. Or even think about."

"God. John. That is so not true." Dave sounds so frustrated.

"Don't I stress you out all the time?" You honestly ask him something you always meant to.

"John. I ain't gonna lie... you do... but I just get worried because I care so much about you." Dave at least answered honestly.

God. Now you're just starting to think that the dude was with you in the other timelines out of fucking pity.

You're so fucking pathetic to even listen to.

You understand why no one wants to be around you or even talk to you.

You get it.

You completely get all of it.

You already knew most your life that Dave liked guys, he must have just bit the bullet and married his 'best bro' so that you wouldn't stress him out so much. Dave probably doesn't even love you, he probably thinks you're so pathetic he'd do anything to fix you.

You're blathering on and on about how no girl will ever want you and you can't even bring yourself to talk to anyone or go outside your house because it's such a strain to even think about holding a conversation or introducing yourself. You're crying. You can even feel the tears roll down your cheeks and the dryness of your throat.

You want to change it... but you just can't see why you're experiencing this in the first place. It isn't a pleasant memory. This memory isn't happy or anything other than just... you being fucking annoying. 

"No one could ever. Ever fucking..." You sob. "Ever want me."

"Not true." Dave sounds frustrated. 

"Fucking tell me it's not, Dave!" You yell at him. "Tell me anyone would actually want to put up with me!"

"John. Fucking." Dave sounds a bit stumped, and completely fucking annoyed with you. "I could see any girl falling for you, you're so funny and kind. You're always willing to help people out with their projects online! You're just shy and you don't know how to talk to people face-to-face. Lots of people are like that, it's the curse of our generation."

"Dave. I honestly... just... fuck. Okay." You started actually listening to yourself. You're bottling it up again. Like you always do. Like you should. "I just need to accept it. Just come to terms with who I am. I'm just a loser who'll never be with anyone and that's fine."

"John. Don't fucking talk like that again." Dave sounds like he's holding himself back from yelling at you. 

"Dave, you're the one who always says that I need to learn to be honest with myself."

"Well you're not a fucking loser." Dave sounds pissed at you, he's not even covering it up anymore. "John you're- you know you are so much fucking more than just- shy!"

"Does it even matter if I am? I can't talk to anyone. I'll never find anyone. I'm going to die alone and that's cool. I just have to come to terms with-"

"You are not going to die alone. You will **always** have me." Dave sounds more defeated than angry.

"Dave." You shake your head as you cry into your phone. 

"If you honestly fucking feel like... this fucking shitty, man." Dave scoffs into the phone. Sounds like he's annoyed with you. He actually sounds annoyed with you. You start sobbing harder.

"John. I-" Dave sounds hesitant to speak.

Sounds like he might finally be giving up on you. 

"I've been in love with you since we were kids."

You stopped sobbing.

"You're the only person I know who smiles when you see me."

Instantly. The tears stop flowing.

You can't even bring yourself to breathe.

It just... doesn't sound real. 

You wipe a trail of tears from both of your cheeks with your arm. You whisper into the phone,

"Dave..."

It doesn't sound real... but... you... you know that it is.

You know how hard this has to be on Dave. It took him years to confess to you how bad his home life was... Dave finally told you where his bruises came from when he turned 16.

It was his birthday and his twin bro wanted to go out to get burgers so you drove them yourself to grab some and then celebrated in the park with just the two of them, you recall it was a warm day for it being december. They were reserved guys, so you knew they just wanted to chill and do nothing with no one but you still brought them a cake from home you made from scratch anyway as a surprise. The two of them acted all chill about it, but you could tell they were trying hard not to smile... didn't matter if they didn't want to, you smiled enough for the both of them.

After the cake you pulled out a few small gifts from your dad's trunk. They were nice little things, like those vintage old fashioned paper novels Dirk loved and a different array of snacks. You got Dave one big one though, a brand new skateboard! Because he was always banged up -blue and black marks always showed from under his long sleeves- you always figured he rode it a lot. You actually believed the lie he told you more than just a few years before that. You knew something was wrong when Dave told you he's pumped to start finally learning how to ride a board. Then you instantly pressed Dave on where his bruises came from...

God. You even remember how Dave tried to downplay that getting smacked around wasn't a big deal. Dirk told you the same thing, not to worry about them. That the two of them could handle themselves... that they always had. Since you three were kids.

Right after Dave confessed their older brother beat them, you grabbed Dave and Dirk. Right then and there, you took the two of them home with you in your dad's car as it drove you home on autopilot. You were too angry to drive. You didn't say one word to them the entire drive, not till you got to your house did you say anything. 

You stomped into your kitchen. You walked right up to your dad and told him that they were staying the night, no matter what they said. You told your dad they aren't going back home, even if _he_ came over to get them. Dirk started an argument with you right then over how it wasn't your choice, an argument you won.

You made the two of them spend the night and in the morning you talked with your dad about letting them stay with you till high school was over. Your dad agreed to let them stay till they got on their feet. Neither of you could even picture turning your backs on them. You've both known them almost their whole lives...

The two of them busted their asses after that, showed you and your dad nothing but respect and they worked hard to emulate what they saw in you. You even felt like Dirk looked up to you in a weird way, like something snapped into place in his mind... that the world could be kind if he'd only let it. Dave though... he always looked at you that way since you were in the first grade together... since you bandaged up one of his bruises yourself cause it had a bad cut... Dave followed you like he was your shadow after that.

There was no guestroom in your old house, so Dirk had to sleep on the couch. Dirk told you it was an upgrade. You hardly knew him as anything more than your best friends brother... still, that broke your heart.

Of course, Dave would sleep next to you in your bed and he was a cuddler... everyday you'd wake up in his arms. 

Dave used to sit next to you on the couch when you'd watch movies after school, you'd catch him staring at you instead of watching the tv. You'd always flash him a smile and then go back to laying on him.

Sometimes you'd catch Dave and Dirk talking in private, the moment you'd walk in they'd go quiet... 

Like they were talking about you...

He just said -in this foreign timeline- that he's been in love with you since you were kids...

"Don't just..." you sniffle, "lie to me like that."

Dave sounds more emotional than you've ever heard him before, "I'd never lie to you- and you know my life hasn't been easy, and I'm only bringing that up because you were the one thing. The Only Thing. In my life that made it bearable." Dave sounds desperate to let you know that this isn't just something that he's telling you for the sake of convincing you a girl could fall for you... this sounds like a secret he was keeping and was willing to die with.

"You were always. Always there for me." Dave sounds like he's trying to keep it together. "Telling me these cheesy jokes and-an-and smiling whenever you saw me. You were the only person who ever did that for... for me." Dave sounds like he's on the verge of tears. "I know that you're straight and I know that it's pointless... but I don't want you to-" Dave choked on his words for a moment. "I don't want you to think that no one could love you. I don't care who ends up with you. I don't need that to be me... I just, I just need you to be happy."

Instantly at the sound of Dave's sobs, you sat up.

You, yourself, feel like grabbing him and holding him close to you, like you'd do when Dave would start sobbing at night.

You don't hesitate to speak when Dave stops talking.

You gently say, "come over."

"What?" Dave sounds like he's trying to hold back his tears. He doesn't like crying in front of you. 

"Just come over." You whisper, "I want to... I want to be with you right now."

"What do you even mean by that?" Dave whispers.

"Dave. I meant that I don't want to be alone right now, and I know you don't want to be alone either... so just come over. I swear. We can figure out the rest from there." You sniffle lightly, "I just want to spend the night with you in my bed... like when we were kids... I just know... that I'd always feel at peace lying in your arms."

"I... I'm on my way." Dave hung up without even a goodbye. You guess he didn't need to say it. It wasn't even a goodbye. He was coming to you.

Your memory just keeps playing out with you sitting on the couch.

Waiting for him.

You're sure you don't need to know how it goes.

You just tell the doctors, "change it."

Your eyes went black for a split second.

Suddenly you're in bed. Your old bed...

It seems like you can't get to sleep with how much you're tossing around. 

You turn and face the other way.

You find Dave, his bright red eyes are gently looking at you. You can hardly see in clearly in the dark and without your glasses on, but you can tell that he's younger... a lot younger. 

You let out a huff after looking into those eyes of his. Without Dave even saying one word, you already know what's on his mind.

"Okay!" You lift up one of your hands and let it drop to the bed. "I can't sleep!"

"Dude, same boat. Your birthday cake was like loaded with so much sugar- it feels like I just drank a pot of coffee, fuck." Dave gives you his hand. "Look, dude. I'm shaking."

You take his hand and laugh. Dave hums out the words, "why can't you sleep?"

"Ugh!" You groan as you cling to his hand. "Ca-cause..."

Dave lightly tilts his head into his pillow, he's looking at you with caring eyes. You have to tell him... 

"It's cause I'm like 18 now and I've never... been with anyone."

"So?" Dave whispers to you, "me neither."

"But." You looked down at the white sheet tangled up beneath your head and then up at his hand that you're holding. "I... mean... you're so cool, you could be with any guy so of course it feels like no big deal to you... I couldn't land a girl if I even tried."

"Well then," Dave says it like it's a joke, "I can get you off if you feel so strongly about it, man. I'll be your girlfriend tonight."

You give him a face and a pout, "really?"

"Yeah." Dave nods and whispers, "I owe you a birthday gift anyway."

You whisper back, "yeah. Ha. Taking my virginity is still not as cool as that program Dirk coded for me." You joke back.

"Dude, have you felt how soft my hands are!?" Dave lightly laughs. 

You're still holding onto his hand. You stare down at his hand and marvel at it... You feel his palm, it's so soft, like velvet. No, softer. Like a flower petal. 

"Offer still stands." Dave tells you. Your eyes flicker back up at Dave as he spoke, _you_ -your real self- didn't even realize how long you've been feeling how soft his hand was. 

You look away from him, you see something there in his eyes. Something you've never seen when the two of you were kids. It scares you.

You look up at the ceiling for a moment. The other version of you must have seen it too...

You looked back into Dave's eyes. There it is again. It's something you just can't describe. You're not even sure the emotion in his eyes even has a word? There's this deep, sinking feeling bubbling to the surface of his soul, you can just see it. But there's this sheepish feeling, like Dave's more than willing to pull it back down into his soul if you... reject it... 

You wonder if the other version of you can even recognize it. 

You can see it now... 

_love_

You softly say, "you... you really mean it?"

Dave lightly gasped for a moment. 

Dave's lips are parted open, but he doesn't look like he can speak. 

He slowly tilts his head down, and... nods...

You sit up and slowly grab a bottle of lotion and pour some out on Dave's hand... he doesn't hesitate to take it.

You settle down next to him in bed. You can hear nothing but your heartbeat. It's pounding.

Then Dave starts breathing heavy, he seems like he was holding his breath. 

You tell him, "you... um... don't have to if you don't want to. We can stop whenever you wanna."

Dave drags his hand down your pajama pants and boxers and he starts feeling your semi.

You gasp at his touch, his hands feel cold from the lotion, but when he starts rubbing you... it starts warming up.

 _"Ah. Ah..._ Fuck." You slap your hand over your mouth. You stifle your moans completely. 

Dave just stuck in his other hand, he gets right to work tugging you with both.

"Wai-wait." You tell him to "slow down."

Dave pulls his hands completely away from you. His eyes look a bit shocked, like he thinks he did wrong.

"I just-" You blow a gust of air from deep in your gut out. "I almost came." You confess and you bring your hands down from your face so you can take off your pants and boxers. You must not want to finish in your pants. That or... it's too hot. 

You're panting hard right now, you expect that Dave's gonna call the younger you _easy_ or make fun of you or... something. Instead, Dave gently says, "tell me if this is good." 

Dave lifts up the sheets and reveals your bare cock. You lightly gasp at the sight yourself, but Dave's panting somehow got even heavier than before.

Dave wraps his hand around your cock and slowly starts pulling it. He uses his other hand to massage your tip.

"Mm-mmph." You try to stop yourself from moaning too loud. "You're... you're so good..."

"Ye-yeah?" Dave pants as he stares down at your bare cock. He swallows down some spit, you bet his throat is getting dry from all that panting.

"Can we um...?" You trail off.

Dave lifts up his head to look into your eyes.

You place a kiss to his lips.

Dave's eyes widen, like his soul just shattered. 

You look away and cover your face with both your hands. "I'm sorry! I just- I didn't mean to take it too far."

Dave pulls your hands away from your face and starts gently kissing your lips back.

You parted Dave's lips open with your own. 

You stuck your tongue inside his mouth and then guided his hands back down to your erect cock.

You felt a thrill serge through you, you wanted Dave to take you completely. 

You wanted his lips on yours, you wanted his hand pleasuring you. _'Fuck. His hands are so soft.'_

You frantically moan into his mouth as you finish into his hand.

You pulled away from his lips and moaned out his name. "Dave."

"John." Dave breathed out your name and then gently placed a kiss on your lips.

You took a few moments to breathe. Once you collected yourself again you started up with,

"I... Wow...." You huffed. "I... I can't just pretend that didn't happen." 

Dave said nothing to that.

"I guess it was like the way you looked at me... but I... I just needed... um... to kiss you." You sat up and grabbed a bath towel from off of your desk chair. You brought the rag over to Dave and smile down at Dave's hand as you clean it, Dave sits up besides you as you sit back down on the bed. 

Dave opens his mouth like he wants to speak. Looks like he wants to apologize.

You press your lips against his again, stopping the words from flowing out. 

You gently smile down at the bed and say, "I really like that... I... I feel a thousand times better... so, um... I guess..."

You smile up at Dave as you say, "I think this means we're supposed to be together." 

Dave's eyes widen... his face was probably already red, not like you can see anything in the dark like this... but you can see his mouth widening, like he wants to scream. 

You look down for a moment and then back up, "do you... um... want to date me? Or is the two of us together tooo...?"

"I-i-i-i-" Dave started rapidly nodding. "Yes! I- Yes! The two of us- yes!"

"I just don't want to ruin what we have though, Dave... but after that, I think I might have just... did?" You lightly shrugged and nervously chuckled. 

"No!" Dave shakes his head, "no! no! no!"

Dave grabs you by your waist and pulls you close to him.

"John, baby, babe."

You couldn't help yourself, you giggle at hearing Dave call you pet names.

"We're always gonna be best friends," Dave explains. He plants a kiss on your lips and softly tells you, "I'll be this good to you every night, just say the word. I'll always come running." Dave starts kissing your lips again.

"Shit. I always wanted to do this." Out of nowhere, he grabbed a handful of your ass. 

You start giggling again. "Da-dave!" You seem like you love it.

Dave softly kisses your cheek and whispers, "I'll be anything you need. I'll be whatever you want whenever you need it, baby."

Dave kisses you on the lips again, he's pulling you into a deep kiss.

It feels so fucking blissful to be this... desired.

You pull away from the kiss to happily ask him, "where's all this coming from!?"

Dave keeps kissing your lips, in between his kisses you keep giggling.

You don't even see a point in letting this go on any longer.

The points clear...

You're done.

. . .

You're back in your own world.

You're pinch your brow.

You feel like letting slip a few tears. 

...you don’t get the chance to even dispute it. 

It's just written into the universe... a truth, a constant. 

Every memory you played through, all of them until your time ran out was just of you and Dave.

There was no memory of you dating a girlfriend who left you or even of you getting married to your wife who you were about to leave... for your best friend...

It's like you were just supposed to be with...

The love of your life.

. . .

"Hey, man?" You hear Dave's voice over the phone, "what up?"

"I was just thinking..." You softly say, "we should travel some place together, I've been feeling stuck and I want some time to clear my head. I was hoping that you'd come with me..."

Dave instantly agrees, like you knew he would. "I'm down." 

"Down for a ski trip?" You try to hide your excitement. 

"Anywhere you want, man." Dave sounds like he's trying to play it cool. He's probably pumped you're taking steps to improve yourself... or that you're at least one step outside of your apartment. "I'm always down to hang with you."

"Alright, then I guess it's a date!" You laugh like it's a joke. Dave has no idea it's not! "I'll send you our travel date as soon as a schedule a flight, and don't worry! I'll buy the tickets and everything!"

"Nah, man." Dave sounds like he hates the idea. "I can't let you pay for everything."

"How about I pay for this and you pay for the next trip?!" You happily offer Dave the chance to pay, although you know it would really be Dirk's money if Dave paid for it.

"Next trip?" Dave sounds confused, "are you gonna make this like... a thing?"

"Yeah! I wanna make some real changes in my life. Do something that will make me happier! You know something... you've been completely right... I work too hard, but the good thing is that I have the money to spend now! Sooo! Let's spend it together!"

Dave sighs out of his nose, he tells you, "I'll pick up the tab next time."

. . .

Here you finally are! After three long days of planning, you're standing side-by-side with Dave, sitting down waiting for your flight to board. You're both more than ready to board and you're so ready to start the rest of your lives together. Okay so… Dave didn’t know _that_ yet, but he’s gonna he so siked when he finds that out. This is going to be like the best thing that’s ever happened to him in his life! You’ll pepper Dave up, give him the perfect opportunity to confess and give or take a year, you'll be engaged and married, Dirk’ll be your best man and you’ll have a picture of your dad right where he would have sat… it sounds picture perfect. Like a movie. 

You’re waiting right next to Dave to board your flight, you lightly punch his arm. “You excited?”

“Yeah, man.” Dave nodded. “Always something ominous about boarding one of these things.”

“I know, they take all this time boarding but it takes five minutes to get to Europe.”

“Terrifying, right?” You ask.

“Only cause we’re going to space for like a hot second.” You tell him.

Dave gorans, “Ugh. I hate space, Dirk drags me up there sometimes and I swear my bones get all fucked from it.”

“You’re supposed to like run on a treadmill, I think.” You say.

Dave shook his head, “I don’t know Dirk does it, says something about his bones deteriorating?” 

“Oh! I heard about that!” You look up at Dave with a smile.

Before you have the chance to say anything else, a voice on the speakers announced, "we are now boarding flight 1025." 

"Looks like we're about to board soon!" You start helplessly giggling with excitement.

You know exactly how this trip is gonna go! Dave is going to confess his undying love for you he had since grade school! He's going to reveal his secret love for you once he's pressured by the romantic atmosphere of the hotel and your room! From there you'll be able to reassure him that you know he can win your heart!

Once you entered the flight you happily sought out your seat while Dave trailed behind you. You pointed at the window seat and invited Dave to have it. "Let me put away our stuff first, man."

"Oh!" You lightly laugh at yourself for being so gung-ho about the trip. You hand Dave your carry on as you tell him, "sorry!"

"Hey, I love that you're so pumped." Dave puts away your things in the overhead as he tells you, "it's just like when we were kids. Remember that trip to the beach? You were so fucking siked the whole drive."

"Oh God." You bunked down in the middle seat and then shake your head. "I haven't thought about that in forever."

You feel a bit of an ache come over you, somehow remember that trip put a knot in your stomach. 

You stare out the window of the pod and drift in your thoughts. It's about ten minutes away from lift off. 

Dave still remembers something you completely forgot about...

That's right... Dave's been in love with you since you were literally kids. He saw your awkward middle school phase where you thought you were some big-shot coder. Dave watched you go through puberty and he used to sleep next to you in bed when you were 16. Ugh. You'd drool and you know you have this thing where you snore if you're really really tired and you love to stay up all night! You can't believe that after living with you that Dave would still be in love with you. That and... after dwelling on it. Dave isn't too bad looking.

Dave's tall and slender, but he still has muscles from that weekly gym schedule Dirk makes him follow. Dave has these stunning blood red eyes and you distinctly remember on that beach trip that he got freckles all over his pale face from being in the sun for too long. He was so embarrassed by it, Dave didn't want anyone looking at him for a full week after and he stayed inside for the rest of the summer, trying to use a hoodie like it was a mask. You just poked at him and said he was being super cute. God. You even remember getting this urge to pull him close and kiss him all over cause he seemed like a cute puppy dog or something. You didn't recognize it was like... maybe the start of a little crush? 

Ugh! Thinking back on your childhood now, Dave was always the cool one. He did dorky things like that but he never had his braces snap cause his teeth were destined to be fucked up! Dave actually learned how to skate when you two were teens and when he tried to teach you how to do a simple trick, you fell face first into the pavement. Dave had to listen to you bitching and whining for years about never finding a girl, and he was sucking up how badly in love with you he is! Why!? 

You stare out the window, Dave sits down next to you. Your eyes adjust from looking out the glass to looking at him. God, he's handsome even in lighting as horrible as this. You could probably just kiss him now and confess you're ready to give your heart to him. Just hand it over cause he fucking earned it.

You learn forward. You move your hand down so you can place it on Dave's thigh- "Ep!" You feel the entire pod jolt upward! You gasp and nearly scream. The entire place shakes for a few seconds.

You tightly clasp both of your arms around Dave's arm. Dave jolted up in his seat, surprised at how tightly you're clinging onto him. Dave straightens up his back as he looks down at you. You tilt up your head and smile at him. "Oh- I'm sorry... I just thought I'd be able to handle the pressure."

"I know what you mean, the ringing in my ears is loud as fuck." Dave shook his head, he's still wearing those shades he's so fond of. 

You lightly hum a laugh and attempt to work your Egbert charm on him, "how do you stay so brave, Dave?"

"Uh... I'm not? I just don't show how fucked up that take off's got me feeling on the outside."

"That's what being brave is!" You lightly laugh as you grab tighter around his sleeve. "I wish I could do the same, but everything I think is written all over my face!" You give him the sweetest smile you can muster. 

"Yeah, but I like that about you." Dave looks away from you for a moment, like he's thinking of how to correct himself. When he looks back at you Dave says, "you know I'm a bit awkward, so I like when people let me know if I upset them and... shit like that."

"Ha. Well, I can hardly remember anytimes you pissed me off. You've always been so cool." You keep feeling up his bicep. "...and good to me."

Suddenly you feel the pressure in the pod drop. It feels like an elevator just caved and is dropping beneath you, dragging you down with it! You wrap both of your arms around Dave's. You're heart jumps up into your throat and you let out a yelp. When it's over and you're back on solid ground you don't let go of Dave's arm. You need the comfort right now till your heart comes back down from space and into your chest again.

Dave pats your back gently and tells you, "it's alright."

"Ha... wow." You think out-loud.

The feeling those words just gave you was more of a rush than dropping from space to the Earth. You don't know why you didn't open your heart to the thought of this earlier... Not that that matters, you're ready to let Dave in now. You're hoping this trips gonna show him that the door to your heart is wide open for him!

. . .

"This is the place!" You happily cheer.

You're standing outside of the hotel's wooden door. The entire vibe of the hall is rustic but sophisticated. 

You can hear Dave's heart beating from over here. He looks like he's working up a sweat!

You open the door for him, poor Dave's gonna get so stressed out for the first night or two. But once he confesses his love he's going to be so relieved! 

The two of you walk in and already find your bags are in the place. Thank goodness they didn't get lost! Half of the things you need for your devilish master plan is in your luggage! But that's for later, for right now you just want to settle in your room. 

You quickly look around the place and instantly sink yourself into it's old rustic feel. The walls looked like they were actually made of wood, like you were in a log cabin. Against the wall, in the middle of the room there's a large canopy bed. There was dim lighting, the only light in the room is coming from lanterns scattered around, sitting on furniture. You see that there's an unlit fireplace across from where the bed is. Past the bed, there's a round hot tub in the room that looks like it was cobbled out of stone. 

You turn towards Dave and pretend to wince, "Oh, damn! I didn't tell you! I somehow ended up booking one of their honeymoon sweets. It only has a single bed, is that okay?"

"That's cool." Dave nods. "I'll just crash on the couch." Dave points over to the space right next to where you're standing, there's a bright, white couch behind you that you didn't see when you entered. Dave tells you, "looks as good as the bed does."

"What?" You shoot your head around to look at Dave and almost yell, "No!" 

You take a moment to breathe. You need to calm yourself, you can't come off as desperate, if you do he'll pick up on your intentions and then he'll totally figure out booking this room was no accident. You smile at Dave and chuckle, "I don't want you getting a back ache."

"I honestly don't care, man." Dave shrugs as he looks up at the ceiling, hands in his pockets like he's playing things off all cool. "I totally get it if you need your space..." You get what he means by that.

"We used to sleep with each other all the time, and I don't mind that you're a cuddler!" You lightly punch his arm with your fist. "Plus, it's probably gonna get cold at night, I'd rather have you besides me."

For a moment, Dave looked like he was in pain. Instantly, he went back to looking calm and collected as he said, "whatever you want, man."

You start lightly laughing as you drag Dave by the arm over to the window to check out the view. 

"Oh wow!" You gasp as you take in the view of the mountains. There is a dirt path along the ground leading up to the snow tipped mountains. You're well aware most people must take pods over, but you'd love to take a walk through that scenery with Dave. 

The grass surrounding the hotel is a bright, flawless green with no specs of dried or dead grass in sight. There were large bushes along the trail outside that were all perfectly red. Looking up at the sky it's crystal clear, no clouds insight, just endless blue.

You're smiling so big you're cheeks are starting to hurt. You can't help it.

You know how this is gonna go!

Dave's staying with you, in the most romantic ski resort in the world! He'll have no other choice other than to confess his love! It's the perfect place to do it too! Oh you can't wait to see which place he'll pick! Maybe he'll confess up on top the mountains? Maybe while you're sipping wine during dinner? Wherever it is! There's no way he won't confess. This entire place is just too beautiful and you're sure that Dave's gonna notice just how happy you are to be out and about with _him_ instead of alone and trapped in your apartment. 

"Soo..." The sound of Dave's deep monotone voice snaps you out of your thoughts.

You turn your head to look at him, lightly tilting your head to ask him 'what?'

Dave answers your nonverbal question "What do you want to do first?"

"Oooo!" You clasped your hands together, "after that flight I think I want to keep my feet on the ground for a while, so the ski lift is out... maybe we should..." You hum as you think, dragging your finger up to your chin and turning back towards the window. Looking at the path, it gives you an idea. "Go for a walk!"

"I'm game." Just like always, Dave instantly caves to do whatever you want.

. . .

Here the two of you are, walking up the dirt path. You're already hiking up a hill. 

You saw on the resort's webpage there is a beautiful spot overlooking a lake.

You're sweating bullets, Dave seems unfazed by the journey, he's walking so fast he's a good three feet ahead of you. 

If he confesses up here, you're making him carry you back. 

'Oh shoot.' You're approaching the most beautiful spot soon. You better spark up conversation.

"Hey, Dave?" You get his attention. 

Dave turns his head around and stops, "what's up?"

You catch up to him as you speak, "I was just thinking about how.. um... it seems like you've never had a boyfriend." You think of something on the spot.

"Oh." Dave seems a bit surprised by the topic. "I went on a few first dates with a few guys, most of them Dirk set me up on... none of them ever felt right, you know?"

"Aw, well... I'm happy that you tried to put yourself out there." You happily nod. Obviously, it never felt right cause he knows he should be with you! _He's half-way there from saying it!_

"Yeah... half the dudes were cool, but I didn't wanna string them along. I knew shit was gonna go nowhere with them, so I just let them know that straight up." Dave tells you, "you'd be surprised how many guys appreciate the honesty." 

"Ah." You nod and then begin to dwell on it for a moment. "You know, Dave. I think you deserve someone perfect for you, someone always happy to see you... someone you could see yourself end up with for the rest of your life. You did good not stringing along any of those guys if it didn't feel right, you deserve something real. Something..."

You look up at Dave. You notice behind him glistening water. You tilt your head to get a better look at it. You stop walking, Dave stops in place as well. You gaze at the lake as the sunbeams dance over the gentle waves. You marvel at the mountains across the lake. The grass is still so bright and there's even more flowers, blue buttons, orange fire lilies, alpine pinks, bright white petals and soft buttercup yellows. All scattered amongst the scene, you take in the view, it's more than breath taking. The thought sinks into your mind that... you'd never be looking at something like this... in a place like this, if it wasn't for...

You turn to look at him. Dave's looking at you. His lips slightly parted open, like he wants to say something. 

You speak for him, "it's beautiful." 

Dave looks over at the scene for a moment, then he picks up the pace. Like he's pretending that neither of you even stopped. 

_'Ugh. This shy asshole!'_

"He-hey!" You call out to him, "wait up!"

You run up to catch up with him, you're starting to pant again. "You're giving me a real workout here! heh heh!" You force yourself to laugh and smile, "you want to go up further?!"

"Just a bit." Dave reluctantly lies. He just wants to get away from the scene. You must have just gotten to him bad.

"Okay." You sound hesitant to say, "whatever you want."

After a few moments of trying to keep up with Dave and his stupidly long legs, you convince him to start heading back, "can we go back now? I'm so tired."

"No problem." Dave turns right around with you and starts walking down the hill with you. The view is still in sight and just as beautiful as before. You think you can hear Dave scoff.

Maybe you better take his mind off of things, "so... how's Dirk doing right now?"

Dave keeps his eyes forward and his hands in his pockets as he walks on, "he keeps telling me about his business deals and I'm getting kind of tired of all his mass texts, but you know. Things are cool, he's happy so long as he's making the big bucks."

"Ugh. I could have figured." You hunch over and let out a huff. "The guy practically pays my rent."

"Ha. He pays mine too." Dave admits.

"Isn't your music career taking off?" You straighten up your back after you ask him.

Dave shrugs and turns to look at you. "I think I reached my cap on how many followers I can get, I'm not gaining anymore."

"Still," you happily nod and smile softly at him, "you're doing great, Dave!"

"Ehhh, as good as I can do apparently." 

"You know." You lightly lift up a finger, "my dad used to tell me something like, 'a good man is always humble but takes pride in his accomplishments when a complement is earned.'"

"That sounds like him." Dave shakes his head as he laughs. "And it sounds like you could use that advice."

"Oh! Save it!" You chuckle, "I already know what you're gonna say. That I'm like the best coder you know next to your bro." 

"Damn, how'd you read my mind like that?" Dave seems surprised, but pleased with your attitude.

"You say stuff like that all the time." You nod as you tell him, "and well, recently I decided to take it to heart!"

"What is it with you today?" Dave gives you a confused smile as he tilts his head to the side.

"What?" You laugh and tilt your head to match his.

"You're acting like when we were kids." Dave keeps on his confused smile as he lifts up his head.

"So? Is that bad?" You smile as you ask him."

"Well... No..." Dave shrugs. "It's just... surprising is all."

Dave quickly corrects himself, "it's nice though. To see you this... upbeat."

"You mean happy?" You correct him yourself. "I think I just needed fresh air... and you know, someone special to be with."

. . . 

UGH! Everytime you brought up how Dave was _special to you_ or that you two were _even closer than friends._ Dave would just blow you off and tell you, "yeah, man. We're like **best bros.** " Dave is well aware what there is between the two of you isn't brotherly at all! You're not bros and you certainly aren't his bruh! You're fine with the _my man_ shit he's been in the habit of saying at random today. You are his man! And you're gonna prove it!

"Oh wow..." You scroll through the brochure the staff placed on the night table as you sit down on the bed. You press a small menu button and then point up at the hologram that pops up. "Dave, they have 24 hour room service."

"Wanna get something?" Dave knows you're usually hesitant to just toss away money when the cheaper option would be to go see if there's anything around the area. But damn, you don't wanna walk after that romantic hike, plus... the best romance happens in the bedroom. 

You dwell on it for a moment. "Well it is my vacation." Maybe you should get something. 

You scroll through the menu and see a small section that looks like it's aimed at lovers. There's something kind of sexy about steak and wine, and spaghetti sounds sexy too. You know how Dave gets about bread sticks. 

But holy moly, there's a cheese and chocolate fondue plate they can bring up! Oh if you take a strawberry and dip it in chocolate with your bear hands and put it up to Dave's lips, no way he's not gonna pop a boner. And you plan on jumping straight into riding it! You instantly press your finger up against the hologram and press the button to order it. 

"Holy shit!" You jump up once you hear something akin to lasers sparking up near the foot of your bed. You hustle over to the end of your bed and look at the small table at the foot of it. Holy shit. The fondue, in all of it's glory, just appeared on the table out of nowhere!

"I didn't know they had one of these!!!" You've never used one in person, they cost a ridiculous amount of money and resources to make! No wonder why this place was so expensive. But wait... didn't this cost money too?

"Ho fuck." Dave points at the hologram's menu at your tab. "Look, price isn't even that steap."

"Ah! Oh my god!" You grab onto the metal sticks that just appeared and get to work dipping the bread squares into cheese sauce. "Let's see what this baby can do!" 

Instantly, the first thing you pick to appear is your future lover's drink of choice... a nice bottle of children's apple juice. 

. . .

Sure, that could have gone better. But hey, you didn't need to seduce Dave with dinner and dinner and more dinner. You just needed to have a good fucking time with that Star Trek replicator thing with your best bro as one last hurrah before you become straight up lovers. 

You let room service know when you finished up with the meal and then you went to the bathroom.

You packed something a little salacious for the night. Tight, tight black shorts and a smooth navy blue shirt. The material is so soft and skin tight. Definitely a smart move getting all the hair on your body fizzled off with that gel you got online. Checking out how you look in the mirror now, even you have to admit you look good.

You step out of the bathroom and walk over to bed. God damn it. Looks like Dave already decided to peace out and go to bed. You turn on the light anyway. You didn't get dressed up for nothing. You lightly gasp after and say, "oh! Sorry! I wasn't thinking." 

Dave sits up in bed and rubs his eyes as they adjust to the light. Dave's eyes widen for a moment while he notices how you're dressed. You have to try hard not to bite your lips at the way Dave is eyeing you. He looks shocked. You flick the light off and walk over to bed. You slowly sink into bed as Dave asks you, "uh... going for something new, man?"

You lightly laugh and lie, "lately, I've been wearing this kinda stuff to bed and I got so used to it. Sorry if it's a bit strange."

Dave says nothing.

He doesn't need to say anything, you know he's sleepy and he's pretty shy too. You just wanted to show off how cute you look so he knows for bedtime. While you snuggle up to him you can feel him get a bit stiff and rigid. You kinda feel a little hot in Dave's arms like this. In his mind you must seem like his sweet best friend, cuddling up just like you did when you were kids cause you're a bit lonely. You hum a small giggle to yourself, you play it off like it's a little cough. You can't let Dave into your plan just yet! Once he confesses you'll tell him all about how you know he's the love of your life and all about the other timelines. But for now. You're just gonna have a nice first day of your vacay with your best bro.

. . .

You yawn and stretch out your back. You smack your lips together and snuggle your head up to Dave's chest. Dave pats your back. He tries to sit up but you groan out, "five more minutes." Dave sighs and lets you have things your way. You snuggle up to him as long as you can before he tells you, "dude... I really have to shit."

You start laughing. You let Dave go, you tell him to come back when he's done and then snuggle up to his pillow. Hm... it smells like him.

You fully fell back asleep again. When Dave comes back he sits on the end of your bed and wakes you up by shaking the whole damn thing with his big butt. You guess it's time for you to get up and start your day so Dave has the chance to confess. You perk up in bed and tell him, "good morning!"

"Morning." Dave smiles over at you as you rub your eyes, right after you give him a nice big hug to start the day.

Dave pats you back and akwardly says, “so uh… was meaning to ask. When and why’d you start wearing clothes like that?”

“You wanna know? Well, I was planning on working out and never got around to it." 

"You? Work out?" Dave huffs out a laugh, like he already knows it's a lie.

You cover your ass by saying, "I wanted to get nice big muscles like yours!”

“Dude, I’m not that buff- and you look fine.”

“Oh? I look fine?” You give Dave a sly look.

“Don’t make it sound like a pick up line man.” Dave starts getting up from the bed. He's laughing… probably just to mask how he really feels. “Come on, I wanna get up and check out the breakfast shit.”

“Pretty sure we slept past it. I think it closes at eleven.” You yawn as you sit down in bed.

“Nah, man it’s ten.” Dave lightly flips his hair.

“Damn. I forgot it’s a totally different time zone here.” And you forgot how fucking cold it is here too. You don't wanna get up just yet. 

“We’re cool man, so long as you get up now and get dressed." Dave sounds like he's ready to go eat.

"I am dressed!” You stand up. Can't keep your love waiting... plus, you didn’t bring any other type of clothes other than a suit and your winter gear. Shit. It's so cold even in your room... you nervously sit up and walk over to Dave’s luggage. “Uh… ha… Dave would it be cool I wear one of your shirts?"

Dave turns away, you can see that his ears are pretty much turning red as he says. "Sure..."

Looks like he’s turned on by that! You didn't even mean to make him all blushy! You smile happily as you search through his things for something nice and big. He’s been getting buffer recently, despite always being so thin, Dave must be pulling himself into bodybuilding or something because he doesn’t have anything else to do other than call you. Poor Dave, you didn’t even recognize how lonely your friend was… you just figured with his charm and his good looks he could honestly get any guy he wanted and that Dave was just blowing off guys and dates cause he wanted something perfect or nothing at all. You hold up a huge baggy shirt, it was a black tee with long sleeves, just like what Dave would wear when you two were younger.

You put it on over your own shirt and then rush over to show Dave. You laugh as you tell him, “Oh! It's too long for me!"

Dave releases a huge gust of air from his lungs and turns around to face you. His face isn’t red like you thought it was gonna be, probably cause he’s been training himself his whole life not to blush at how gosh darn cute you are.

"Here." Dave rolls up your sleeves one after the other. "Better?"

You make a bitter face at your sleeves, "yeah... thanks." He ruined how cute you looked. Probably so he can save his own skin. Hmmm! It would have been such a cute way for Dave to confess, that he just turns pink and starts stuttering! Ugh. Maybe you can try again.

"So... Dave...?" You start up conversation, "Just out of curiosity? Have you ever spent the night in any other guys bed... or just mine?"

"Uh..." Daves not sure what you’re getting at. "What?"

"Am I the only guy you've ever slept with?" You snicker as you ask.

"augh..." Dave almost groans."Don't rub it in, man." 

"Not rubbing it in, you're the only man _I've_ ever slept with... only person actually." You admit.

"Yeah?" Dave already knows that. You don't know why he seems so happy you just sprung that up out of nowhere... oh wait. Maybe you do know.

"uh... ha..." Dave catches himself and coughs into his fist. "Yeah… we should go get some breakfast.”

"Aw, I was hoping we could talk more." You tilt your head and give Dave a playful pout.

"We can talk in the hall.” Dave starts walking towards the door.

You didn't even brush your teeth yet! But whatever you guess you're gonna eat anyway.

“Pfft!" You walk with Dave to the door, "but I wanted to ask you... _you know…”_

“What?” Dave lets our another deep breath.

You give him a quick little wink, 

“Sexy questions.”

. . . 

As soon as you start asking Dave anything sexy he has to use the bathroom and as soon as you find a way to do something cute he has to spoil your fun.

During breakfast you were happily humming as you ate and marveling at your food. You thought it was a cute little desolate of how happy you were to eat with Dave but he decided he wanted to start talking about old old old shitty films that you **love.** Dave knows exactly how to distract you, when you two were on the ski lift together you wrapped your arms around his and then Dave pointed out that these shrubs all huddled together from above and told you that they looked like a droopy penis. You laughed till you reached the top.

And well, here you are. Standing at the top of a ski slope. It looks like such a long way down and you know that there are fail safes into place to save people, they have medicational droids and always one doctor on standby, but you don’t know what you were thinking. There's no way this will be romantic. You’re probably going to scream the whole way down. Doesn’t help that Dave decided to bring his snowboard instead of skishoes. 

Dave must have sprung money or something to get permission to like do flips and tricks without anyone stopping him too cause he looks like he’s ready to -as he puts it- shread. 

You start clinging to Dave's arm again. You slightly whimper at how high up the two of you are.

“Maybe… I should have started small.” You admit. You’ve skied before sure but when you were like a kid, practically a baby going to the tiny slope for toddlers. This is like advance Shit for fuckers like Dave who know what they’re doing.

“Sorry if I made you laugh so much” Dave apologizes. "I distracted you cause I noticed you were like scared but I should have like... told you to get off earlier."

“No, don’t be.” You confess. “I was planning on going to the top.”

“Why, man?” 

“I thought when I got up here I could ski down and like figure it out on the way down… and impress you.”

“I- John, man. Dude.” Dave stutters a bit. “I-I always think you’re cool. You don’t have to impress me.”

You look up at him with sad eyes. “Really?”

“Coolest guy I know.”

. . . 

Ugh! Dave is so sweet! When you finally start dating you’re jumping right to putting his hands on your ass. He deserves what he wants.

You’re at the bottom of the ski lift. You took the lift down and then skied for at least a tiny bit just to say you did it. Now you’re resting at the bottom and sitting on a wooden bench. You have a nice view of the slopes. You're watching Dave go. Daves so good at skateboarding, but you bet snowboarding is different. Maybe he’s just a jack of all trades when it comes to finding different ways to _-fuck-_ he just did like practically a flip. He’s a master at turning you on that’s what he is. You can just picture letting him smack around your ass while the two of you make out. Fuck you stopped caring about the love confession as soon as he spun around and did a 360. You just wanna fuck that guy raw.

You start clapping your mits together and stood up as soon as Dave’s board drifted towards you. He slowed down and stopped with a jerk. Snow sprayed all over your face and clothes. That cooled you off. You wiped your face off with your mits and then glanced up at Dave. 

Dave looked at you with horror. All of that was probably just to show off to you and then he splashed you like a truck fucking running over a puddle. 

You snicker. And then you start laughing. You pull Dave close into a hug and tell him that he was amazing.

You're sure he would have appreciated you walking up to him and grinding your cock against his thigh, but Dave deserves to have a nice, sweet love confession and something sweet later. You'll give him that. 

. . . 

Finally! Finally it’s time for your big Romantic dinner date. With your best friend from childhood! 

You’re so excited! You just put on your suit and your best pair of glasses! You pulled Dave along to the dinning room, he was wearing a suit too but he made it look so stylish, like one of his bold fashion choices while he’s walking the streets. You look like a dork getting ready for his first real date. Well dress for the job you want, you guess.

You sit down at a small table with just two seats. The small tea light and the rose on the table are so perfect for your date! Dave loves red! It’s his favorite color and almost everything in the whole place is filled to the brim with red. The furniture is a deep mahogany color and the tablecloths white but the atmosphere is perfectly Taylored to Dave's refined tastes. Dave's already turning pink. You’re sure if they brought out a plate of nachos made out of Doritos he’d be flushed redder than his rose. You bring it up to your nose to smell if it’s real or synthetic. You let out a small sneeze.

“Bless you.” Dave lightly laughs.

You sniffle and thank him.

You're holding up the glass of wine your waiter brought for you two both before he brought you the menu. You’re smiling at Dave. “We should toast tonight. I’ve never dined anyplace this beautiful… or with anyone I’ve ever loved more.”

Dave sits up, "I- I have to take a piss. Sorry- Uh- it’s just… my bladders been killing me since the flight. I Uh- I love you two, man." Dave takes a quick sip as he stands over the table, you join him. Dave puts the glass back down and practically runs away.

You’re left alone. 

You mutter to yourself, "so much for romantic..." 

A square metal service cart slides across the room, it's a service droid. You sigh as it says, "may I offer you a glass of wine?"

You take two and start downing both instantly, you tell the bot, "make your rounds and then come back."

You finish one of your glasses and say, "I want to see jesus tonight."

By the time Dave came back, the droid already served you three times. 

Dave looked down at all the empty wine glasses on your table as you skimmed the menu for something but you can’t fucking read anymore! Dave asks you, “did you really drink all those?”

You laugh and ask, "impressed?"

"John, dude." Dave shakes his head like he's frustrated with you. 

Wow. He's frustrated with you huh? He won't even admit why he- he's worried. Fuck that guy.

You lift up your finger and wobble a bit as you say, "Dave- you gotta just tell me why you- you're always so worried over everything I do. Gotta just say it, get it off your chest."

"Cause you do shit like this when I'm not looking."

"Then why look- loo- look away?!" You pick up one of your wine glasses and sip. "Shit." You look at the glass. "It's empty."

"Okaaay." Dave stands up and walks over to you. "Let's go to our room before you get sick, buddy."

"I'm no-not your buddy. Tha-that's stupid."

Dave never calls you that, and he shouldn't! He should- should call you babe! 

You want to tell Dave to call you babe. You stand up and demand- op. You lost your balance. You crash right into the floor.

Dave picks you up.

“We can eat here tommarow. Let’s go before you cause a scene.” 

. . .

You laugh and cheer as Dave carries you down the hall. You stumbled so much dave needed to carry you. When you kissed his cheek he played it off like it was part of some joke. You tried to kiss it again but you got his shades instead.

You grab his shades and pull it off, you wanna see his handsome eyes.

Dave gave you a look, he wants you to put them back on but he looks so pretty with his shades off! You open your mouth to tell him and then you shut your mouth closed. Dave opens the door to your room and then you rush to the toilet to void out all those drinks upsetting your stomach. Dave rushes to your side to help you as you heave into the toilet bowl.

. . .

It’s just failure after failure.

You're resting in bed. You just woke up but Dave is still asleep so you won't wake him. You want him to be close to you.

Every day when you wake up you kiss Dave good morning and he brushes it off like you two are just that close of friends. And when you said you wanted to use the hot tub but neither of you two needed trunks Dave thought that was just a joke!

Ugh! Everything is _just a joke!_ Well, how is saying 'hold me tighter, Dave.' while you're in bed a joke? How is saying, 'you could get any guy you want…' a… joke… shit. You say those things all the time, don’t you? You wanted Dave to cuddle with you when you were teens even. You always thought Dave was hot enough that he could get any guy he wanted. When you two were living together as teens, you’d make Dave breakfast everyday and shuffle the leftovers on a plate for Dirk while you ate toast. Dave must just think that being kind and thoughtful is your default mode. In Dave's mind he's probably just thinking that _cuddly John egbert is paying for a nice trip to Europe just cause we’re friends and he’s lonely and the atmosphere is romantic so John just can't resist making jokes._

Aw! Poor Dave! He has no idea how close he is to finally grabbing your heart and railing your ass. Shit. You need to turn around and stop breathing in his scent straight from the source, you're getting a bit horny again... but Dave's chest is too comfy, you don't wanna move. You place a little kiss on his chest and go back to smelling it.

Dave stirs in bed a bit and then pulls you close to his chest.

That's it.

**You’re done.**

Tomorrow is the day he’s confessing you’re gonna drag it out of him.

**You’re tired of this shit.**

. . .

You dragged Dave up to the most beautiful spot in the entire lodge. Mountain rain gathered together and then formed this beautiful crystal blue lake right in front of you. The snow under your shoes crunch as you walk and then stop in place. You took another hike to show him how gorgeous this veiw was. And god, it was even more beautiful in person than in photos. 

You turn to look at Dave and take off his shades.

You smile as you say,

“Isn’t it beautiful…? It’s probably the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen.” 

You spoke the words as you stared directly into his dangerously handsome eyes. 

“Dave? Is there something you want to say?”

Dave looks like he’s sweating under the collar, even in this cold. “Uh- yeah…”

Dave starts to confess something, something beautiful… 

“I’ve had such a good time with you these past few days.”

“Me too.” You softly say the words like they are a breeze of air.

“We really should do something like this again sometime.”

“Absoluetly.” That’s not what you want to hear but you’ll work with it.

Dave takes a few moments. You wait for him to say something else. But nothing. Not even a stutter or him blushing. 

All of your rage simmers up inside of you and boils over.

You point your finger right at Dave. You don’t even think about it, you just start screaming. “What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

“Wh-what?” Dave looked stunned. 

“Look at all of this! All you have to say is ‘let's do this again, oh you’re my best friend, John! bro, man, dude!’” You groan. 

"Why- are-" Dave's face is always drained of all color but somehow he looks even pailer in the face. 

You grab Dave and force your lips against his.

You let go of him and shout into his face an indisputable fact that you can't fight off any longer, 

"I’m in love with you!”

Dave gasps in air.

Dave stumbles for a moment.

You see tears start to form into his eyes,

"Yo- you? Yo- you a- are?”

"Oh my god!" You shout at him. "How hard is that to even say, Dave?!”

"You’re in love wi- with me?”

"DUH?!" You lift up your hands and gesture to everything around you as you spin, "what do you think all of this was?! Why would you even think that I would platonically kiss your chest every morning and try to skinny dip with you!?”

“I- It I don’t know! Our whole lives you do romantic shit and blow it off like it’s a best bros thing!? An-and why are you mad at me!?”

“Because you’re the one who is supposed to confess!” You stomp your foot into the snow.

“I- wha- what?! Why?!” Dave seems almost panicked with how much his face is sweating.

“I went-" you huff. "I went to one of those timeline reading places and I saw all these different versions of us and you’d confess or propose in all of these different ways and- ugh! I kept trying to set up the perfect time and place for you to just do it! But you wouldn’t!”

“Wait? You- Hold on. You did all of that just to get me to confess? Why didn’t you just -I don’t know tell me?!”

“Because! All of the other John’s got this great big romantic moment with you and I wanted that too!”

"Well this is some shit, John." Dave nods. "This is like... a lot for me to take in."

"I know! How do you think I felt!?" You arch your back and then sigh. 

You walk forward and rest your head against Dave's chest. "All of these different versions of you were so amazing to me... you were always so amazing to me. I didn't even recgonize I had a crush on you growing up... I always thought it was just that I wanted to be like you, but these past couple of days, having the chance to think of you as a lover showed me how badly I want you... how badly I want to be with you."

Dave pulls you into a hug. "I promised myself years ago that I'd always be looking out for you, just like you always looked out for me... and Dirk too... you're so kind, John. I could never fall out of love with you, I've tried... and I don't know... the happiest I've ever felt was making you smile... and I was going to dedicate my whole life to that and that alone."

"I know." You place your hand on his back and grab onto the fabric on his back with your mitten. "I love you."

You spend a few extra moments holding each other. Snow falling around you. You lightly sigh. Soon it's going to be Dave's birthday, you think you'll save giving him your body on that date... Dave is shaking... you think he's crying but you don't want to call him out on it. You're going to be patient with him like he was patient with you. 

You're going to have to thank Dirk again for arranging your appointment at that office. 

You'll tell Dave everything you saw there... better yet, you'll take him down to the office and let him see for himself.

But... not until after you had your fun with him though. Maybe it's better to go into your love with fresh eyes. You probably shouldn't have shouted at him like that... but you know how badly he wants you and you need him more than you need air. You want him to be yours... you want to be his. You're starting to fear that this might have been a bit too much pressure on Dave though... because when you lifted up your head to kiss his lips again... he couldn't stop trembling, but he also couldn't pull himself away. You don't make a move to leave his lips. His nose is so red and cold you want to do everything you can to warm his face. You place your hands over his cheeks, your mittens catch his tears. 

When Dave finally pulls away, he whispers onto your lips, "I love you."

You close your eyes and breathe out the words, "I know." 


End file.
